The heroine complex
by Ishida Sasuke
Summary: Every single male main character has fallen imprisioned in hell! It is now up to the women to save them all, and they are going to be lead by a new heroine... Tatsuki! Of course, she is not alone.
1. Towards The New Dawn

_**Author Note: **__Sequel to "The day of Redemption". Pretty short chapter to start with my own arc afterwards the arrancar arc. I hope you enjoy it!_

**Towards The New Dawn**

"No longer a soul reaper."

Those words echoed on Tatsuki's head. Ichigo would never wear again the black kimono and fight monster, there were others to do it; Ichigo defeated the greatest evil ever met, and so his days as a shinigami were long gone. Just when she got used to the idea of turning aside and watching the hero save the day he gave away his powers to save them all. How hero likely for Ichigo! Such clichés were not suited for him, but that wasn't what bothered neither of them. He sought for Rukia and she knew it. He missed her, she was her friend, their bond was beyond to those of siblings, even if they didn't realize. She tried to look out for Rukia so she could deliver Ichigo some kind of message, but she never found her, how would you find a spirit that travels around two worlds? Even if you were able to see them, she could have been assigned to Kasahistan, Chile, Mexico, Switzerland, etc… there were no real hopes of finding her, the only one taking care of hollows were Ishida and a shinigami whose name she never learnt.

Days were dull and boring both for her and Ichigo. Orihime was away, she hadn't seen her on months, so everything was now even duller and sadder. She missed her, her smile and optimistic soul always helped her to get through boring days. If just Aizen never existed… if Ichigo could have kept his powers and have his life as he used to… but, there was really no way to restore his lost powers? Was it done for? There were people who knew, and yet said no. She was sure this couldn't be the end; it had to be the beginning, but what she didn't know it was that the one who was about to start a new life it was her.

The sun shone brighter than usual as the sky stopped moving. She stopped in middle of the street concerned about how the clouds stopped moving: the Earth had stopped.

Everything was frozen, but her. Nothing moved, but her. Every single person was standing still, the cars were stopped, and planes remained on the air like they were frozen. Time was halted, but she was not and so it scared her as she felt that her body was starting to halt too and some hands touched her breast in order to keep her captive.

"Let me go!" she screamed as she released.

She was able to move again and so she ran away with no hesitation, not looking back but forward, hopping to see any ally who could help her. And so as she ran away she noticed that the air shattered in front of her. Two gates were showed as the sky shattered, two huge gates held by two skeletons, sealed by chains that faintly started to fall apart. From the inside there was a hand that came out with a sword. It pierced a guy that was standing halt on the street. I pierced him on the chest, but the guy didn't react.

"ICHIGO!" She yelled as she ran forwards.

She didn't manage to get him; his eyes were closed, his mouth was releasing a sigh as a downwards gaze revealed his sadness held inside. He was drawn to hell without even noticing as Tatsuki's hand tried its best to reach him, but it wasn't enough. Ichigo had been drawn to hell.

She fell on her knees as her eyes started shedding tears, what was the use of seeing if she could not interfere?

She hit the floor cursing the way things turned as time took his course back.

She was numb, unable to move, unable to think what to do next, scared of what could she do, but there was someone waiting for her.

A water drop fell from the sky and landed on Tatsuki's cheek; it was like a tear, a tear she recognized.

"Orihime…"

Where was she? Was she alright? No, she wasn't… she knew she wasn't in town, but now she knew she wasn't even on Earth, she was back on the other side she never reached, the side she always wished to reach. Why was she so powerless? Couldn't she do something? Then she thought that maybe someone would be willing to help her, if she asked for help she might have been attended.

She ran towards the store, she had not a doubt that he would not decline saving Ichigo, he couldn't, not after all he did for them.

As soon as she got there, she found out almost immediately that there was no a trace of the store any longer.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked out loud as she got scared.

If not the store, then Ichigo's house. His father fought with him on the last battle, so he should be able to do something. But as soon as she got to the place where the clinic should be, she found a wasted land there, as if there was never a house there before. But she didn't found them; neither Karin, Yuzu, nor Isshing were around, they were all gone, like they never existed.

Even more scared than before she picked up her cell phone and dialed Ishida's number, which for some kind of reason was out of service. Chad was out on Mexico. What could she do on her own? How could she find them?

And if it wasn't enough, a hollow was about to attack her, but a beautiful white sword cut him in half.

As the hollow disappeared Tatsuki recognized the shinigami.

"Rukia!"

But she didn't just show surprise like she didn't recognize her; she also pointed her sword at Tatsuki's neck.

"Who are you and how do you know me?"

The only remaining person she knew involved in this crazy world has now forgotten about her. And so the curtains opened toward a new tomorrow shining on blue flares at the dawn.


	2. The stray sword

**The stray sword**

She wasn't shocked at all; if she didn't recognized her, she'd probably do the same, still it was a quite fearful scenario, the blade seemed really sharp and it was only an inch away from her neck. She didn't move; she knew Rukia wouldn't kill her just because she felt like it, she was just threatening her in order to understand. Memories were all gone to hell just like Ichigo.

Tatsuki gulped as her arms dropped and her eyes made direct contact with Rukia's.

"Aren't you going to ask me how can I see you?"

"I already guessed it and checked it." Rukia replied "Now you should answer my question, how on earth do you know who I am? And furthermore, who are you?"

"My name is Tatsuki Arisawa." She answered in a low voice "Even if I tried to explain you wouldn't believe me."

"Test me."

"I'd be a waist of time."

She knew Rukia would not remember Ichigo, she wouldn't believe a word no matter how hard she tried to explain everything, and she knew because it didn't even make sense for her. Right then, there was only one thing she thought that she could do.

"Look, can't you just run ahead and forget about me?"

Rukia frowned, she wasn't expecting that kind of answer, and honestly, neither did Tatsuki; she just made what it was necessary, not only to survive, but to move forwards. She was powerless, she could just see and she couldn't act, yet if she had time she might- just might- figure it all out.

A cry was heard at the other side of the town and Rukia's blade was cast away from Tatsuki's neck as it was stored once again on its sheath.

"This isn't over."

Rukia jumped away from Tatsuki's as she fell on her knees. She didn't know how to proceed and she let go the only person on Earth who had power. She felt pissed, she hated being useless, she was used to win, her fists were never match for almost anyone. Yet this wasn't a battle of fists, but souls, and hers was still weak.

She walked back home, but soon she detoured towards Orihime's place, hopping to find any trace of her existence. Yet the result wasn't nice. Orihime's spirit was over the place, her essence, what we know as spiritual pressure, but no a single trace of her. A mug full of coffee was on a table and it hasn't been drink on a long times, it was no longer brown, but moss green. The dust filled almost every shelf, chair, carpet, and every single furniture. Windows were dusty too, and nothing could be seen from the outside. The saddest thing was to see Orihime's brother, Sora, picture on the ground with the shards of broken framework and glass around the dusty picture. It was just like she died.

Tatsuki's face was filled with tears as she tried to calm herself down, but she was worried, what were those gates? Was Orihime there too? Was Ichigo ok? All those questions were gnawing her mind on fire.

"May I help you?"

A tall man, whose skin seemed pale white like he was sick, had just entered the place. His pale green eyes just shone on Tatsuki's broken eyes as stood on guard. The man had some kind of emotionless face, yet his eyes hid some sadness and nostalgia as he stared the room. He was looking for something; his hands never left his jeans pockets, the jacket covered his whole chest, and his short black hair danced on the air as he walked around the house. He picked a picture of Orihime and he rubbed the gully framework.

"Have you seen this woman?"

"Do you know Orihime?"

"Orihime Inoue…" the name sounded familiar to him. He started feeling that he was missing something "That woman gave me a heart."  
"What do you mean?"

"I don't know." He really didn't "I can't remember."

"Do you remember your name?"

"No. All I can remember is this woman. I thought… I might find my past here."

How on Earth would Orihime know a guy like that? She didn't know, but she could tell they guy was hopelessly in love with her.

"Any name I could refer you to?"

"Call me as you like, I do not have a name here."

She had to give him a name? What a pain! She never even knew how she'd like to call her own son on the future, how was she supposed to give that guy a name? But she didn't have to. Rukia just came by faster than what her eyes could see. She looked at the guy suspicious; she felt an incredible huge spiritual pressure around him, thousands times greater than Tatsuki's, which had to be high in order to be able to withstand it.

"Who is this guy?"

"Neither of us knows." Tatsuki replied "He just came out of nowhere."

"If my presence bothers you, I shall leave."

Rukia was about to reply, but she didn't know what to say, not to mention she felt relieved that such great spiritual pressure was no longer around them.

She turned aside to look at Tatsuki.

"This place makes me feel something." Rukia commented "Like… if there was something I'm missing."

"Maybe you are." Tatsuki knew it was it "Can you remember these names? Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue."

"They do sound familiar." Rukia said "Yet if I try to remember there's nothing. It's like I've heard of them, but I have no memories of it."

"That's because they were extracted out from your brain."

Both Tatsuki and Rukia turned aside. A black cat had just spoken to them.


	3. Newborn swords

**Newborn swords**

She thought nothing could surprise her anymore, but this was something she would have never expected, yet she just sighed. Rukia was surprised as well, it was something she thought she had never seen before, and thus she put her on the hilt of her sword. A cold breeze passed by the house as the cat walked forward.

"You weren't affected as well." The cat spoke directly to Tatsuki "Interesting."

"Is there anything I can do?"

If the cat knew everything about the loss of memories on everyone's head then the only thing she could do, at least, would be to ask that. It was quite weird to be asking such a question to a talking cat, yet she had to. Rukia stared at Tatsuki and frowned as she waited for the chance to ask her own questions.

"Not right now, but you'll do something." the cat stopped talking as it stared at Rukia "As for you Rukia, how was everyone when you left the soul society?"

"The usual." She said as she stared at the cat too "Why do you know such things? Are you from soul society?"

Tatsuki didn't know much about the soul society, of course, she knew it was the place dead people usually went- if not to hell-, but even when Ichigo explained her about it, he never entered in any detail, she didn't know what it looked like, how soul reapers were born- if they were-, and neither how it was ruled. He just told her that he went there once to save Rukia from being executed and he got some allies there. Would no one else remember Ichigo? And what about Orihime? She wished that man wouldn't have left the place; there were so many questions she would have liked to ask.

The flows of thoughts were interrupted as soon as the cat started shape shifting. Tatsuki could not believe it, yet she wasn't that surprised either until she found out the cat was a dark skinned beautiful tall woman; judging from its voice, she could swore it was a male. Rukia was even more astonished.

"You are…"

"Yep." She said "Now, there's no time to lose. Rukia, you should go back to the soul society and see if there's anyone who can remember about Ichigo."

"Why would I listen to you?" she asked "I don't know you at all, you deserted a hundred years ago; give me just one good reason."

"Can you fight me on your own?"

Rukia gulped. Tatsuki could tell right away the difference on their power. She was way stronger than Rukia, her spiritual pressure was being held and yet it was near from excruciating. At the end Rukia left, probably she would return to the soul society.

"I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself."

"Uhm…" Tatsuki was quite impressed. She didn't bother about being naked the whole time, something she wasn't even used to be while being alone at home "Shouldn't you dress up?"

"Why?" she asked "We're both girls, you know how a female body is, so why would it bother?"

"I'm just not… used to talk with naked people…"

"Sorry, but I'm a bit taller than Orihime, I don't think her cloth would fit me."

"And you didn't think of that earlier?"

"I still don't understand why so much hassle." She said as she looked on the closet for cloth "It's not like you are a guy."

"Have some dignity for god sake!"

Tatsuki sighed as the other one dressed up. The underwear fitted fine, yet the only dress she could wear was still tight and it wasn't anything she'd like to wear, it was too pink for her taste.

"As soon as we're off I'm changing clothes." She said sighing "By the way, my name is Yoruichi."

"Tatsuki." She replied "Nice to meet you… I guess…"

There was a brief silence.

"We both remember everything." Yoruichi said "Time halted and only we could move within that halted time. I'm faster than anything and I'm strong enough to withstand most of attacks, but why you? If you could move it's not something about spiritual pressure or being fast, it's about something else that we both have, what is it? I don't know, but you're special and thus you might be the master key to solve this situation."

"What situation?"

"That's what we have to find out. But, you can't go on like this."

"Does that mean?"

"I'm going to make you strong."

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**_A/N: _**_Yes, I know is quite a short chapter for having been off almost a week, yet I've been the hell busy and this is all I could think of writting right now. Next chapter will be on Orihime's POV and the plot will move faster. I hope you enjoyed! Read ya later!_


	4. Lost Swords

**_Author Note: _**_Sorry if I haven't uploaded before, but I needed a break from writting, but now here we are with an Orihime's POV chapter, next one will be on Tatsuki's again. I hope you like it._

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**Lost Swords**

She felt cool; the air breeze what somewhat cold, but not chilly, and there was a strange mist covering her naked body as she walked by. She stopped for a minute to take a breath as she wondered how much time she spent walking around aimlessly around this brand new world. She had no idea of where she was, who she once was, or where her heart laid back then. She just kept moving with no purpose, nothing to seek or find, time erased all of that, the time that made her vulnerable, but it was the same time that kept her face, her body still intact, young and beautiful as the long straight red haired cloaked some parts of her body. The chains that attached her to the material or spiritual world were now all broken, and so she might endlessly walk around that mist. She could no longer care, she had almost no idea of why she was walking, and her reason stopped working, now all that lead her forward was instinct, because if she ever stopped she would disappear eventually. Her body didn't want to disappear yet, it wanted to find the lost heart that was embraced by someone else, maybe stolen. Then the body felt the sensation of two warm hands around her checks. The eyes were perfectly fine, but the iris was whole dark blue, the light could not come into them, it found itself trapped there, and so she was blinded. The only reason she could see the mist was because her sight was so used to it that even while closed nothing seemed to change; thus while being touched she didn't see who was touching her.

"Who is this?"

Her voice was broken, it was deep and dark because of the whole time she remained in silence. She could no longer remember how long had it been, she could only remember the time she started walking around the eternal void of mist.

There was no answer to her question, but there was more touching. The figure touched her whole, softly, trying to revive her dead body. Despite being perfectly kept, the body was just now feeling alive again, as the hands passed through her around every single slept body part.

The girl, who traveled all around aimlessly seemed, for an instance, to remember what life was like.

"I want to live."

The kiss was soft, something she waited for a very long time. She then remembered there was this one kiss that she never gave; it was like she was finally doing it, after a whole eternity passed by.

The hands that rubbed her hair made her feel needed, made her feel whole again. She hugged the man she couldn't feel and her head laid on his naked chest so she could hear his heart beats. She missed it, she wanted to hear her own heart beats and most of all, and she wanted that strong heart for herself.

"Please, please, let me be with you."

What she actually meant was "stay close to me so I could hear your heart for eternity." It was sad, too sad, her eyes shed tears, but she didn't feel anything, she just could seek the end of the eternal void she was suffering.

"Put end to their misery."

The words didn't come from her lips, but his. There was something familiar to his voice, yet she couldn't possibly know whose voice was that; after all there was almost no memory awake on her head.

As the man rubbed her hair, she went to sleep for the very first times in who knows how many years.

Awakening was hard for her as it was the first time in ages that the sun covered her pale skin. She was listening to the sound of life; birds singing, the air breeze around the trees, the many voices from many children, the cry, the laughter, among many other sounds that she missed so much. She was lying on the grass under a cherry blossom's shadow. She felt the rough sensation of the grass and the tight school outfit that she was wearing. She felt weak as she tried to stand up and yet, with her hand on her breast, she could feel the beating of a heart, the heart she lost so much time ago. It was strong, or maybe she thought it was after so much time without it.

As she stood up she gave a quick glimpse over the place she was. Park; the word came slowly into her head as she walked forward looking out for something.

"You…"

The voice came from a man, a deep voice that she longed to hear. The guy was tall, black short haired, extremely pale white skin. She didn't remember him, but her heart beat faster. They ran in order to meet each other. The girl almost fell, but the guy caught her.

"You just came back, didn't you?" he asked.

"Where was I?"

"I don't know, maybe the same place I came from." He said as he got the girl close to his chest "Orihime Inoue, aren't you?"

"I don't know… is that my name?"

Indeed it was, but everything she once was laid now on the void of her slept memories.

The guy hugged her and Orihime hugged him back, wishing she could remain like that forever, yet fate was saving something tragic for her. Everything, but them halted. Orihime freaked out, but felt secure around the man's arms as in middle of the air the gates of hell appeared.

"_None should be able to return from purgatory. Death is death."_

As the gates opened, the man hugged Orihime tight in order to protect her, yet they were being drawn closer and closer to hell. The guy gave faint sad smile as he pushed Orihime away and ran for hell.

The name came to Orihime's mind right away as she watched him heading for hell.

"Ulquiorra! Don't leave me!"

But it was too late, in order to protect her, he jumped right away to hell. Orihime tried to follow, but the gates were closing. She tried to call her shin shun rikka, but she didn't remember how to and the gates closed along with Ulquiorra on it as it left Orihime alone. She felt on her knees as her eyes filled with tears. She didn't know what to do, the emptiness of her heart came back at the moment Ulquiorra was lost and she feared it. She screamed with all her might as tears fell from her face. She wanted to rescue him, to follow him to hell to bring him back, or at least to hear his heart once again.

"Are you ok?"

Orihime was too broken to answer, but she stared at the woman who asked. The woman was tall, her breast was way bigger than Orihime's, thin, and her hair was long of a light red color, almost blond. She was beautiful overall, and kind; Orihime could feel the kindness on her look as she cleaned her tears.

"You shouldn't be crying, there is no reason to lose a smile."

Orihime could not find a way to answer.

"Are you suffering from love?"

She nodded, she could not speak, and she didn't find in herself the strength to explain what just happened.

"You are from Karakura's high school, aren't you? You have the same school outfit that I have."

School? She could barely remember the time she spent there. The woman smiled.

"My name is Rangiku Matsumoto, would you like to come with me?"


	5. Fastest Swords

**Fastest swords**

"Is that all?"

Training was hell, or at least that was how Tatsuki saw it. Yoruichi sighed; she was on her usual outfit, fighting against Tatsuki who was pulp beat.

"You have some good moves with arms and legs, very skilled, yet you are too slow and you aren't using spiritual pressure. This isn't a fight about physical strength, but soul's strength."

"Then teach me how to use it!"

She didn't even realized when Yoruichi stopped being in front of her, she wasn't able to tell when she was thrust to the ground with a hand strangling her throat. For an instance, she thought she would die, air wasn't coming anymore, her arms were about to stop fighting, but she found strength to kick Yoruichi on the waist, yet it only hurt herself.

"Will you really let it end this way?"

Tatsuki didn't know what it meant; she didn't know what to do, there were no weapons around but her arms and legs. They were on Urahara's training room, so she knew there was no way she could ask for help there, if Yoruichi wanted she could kill her right away. But she felt it, a presence, not her own, not Yoruichi's. It was Orihime's.

Tatsuki's eyes burnt on determination flames, as her hands grabbed Yoruichi's and she made pressure to take Yoruichi's hands off her neck. And she made it, which impressed Yoruichi. She finally set free of her and thrust her away while she stood up. Her eyes where burning on white flames around the iris; Yoruichi could recognize what was happening.

"You finally did it."

Tatsuki was so focused on the spiritual energy she was using that she didn't hear Yoruichi. She ran forward as she threw powerful punches forwards, yet none of them could even be near of hitting Yoruichi who stared at her student with a smile on her face. Finally Yoruichi used shunpo to get away from Tatsuki's punch, which hit a giant rock and broke it into million pieces. The use of spiritual pressure left her worn out and she fell on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Yoruichi covered her on a blanket and handed her a bottle of water.

"You did great; most of people wouldn't have been able to endure the first week. Now you developed a spiritual pressure to fight, that's the first stage, and that should be the hardest."

"Good, because any more of it and I would have died." Tatsuki drunk the water fast as hell, and when she finished she asked "Will I become a soul reaper?"

Yoruichi stared at her, thinking.

"You are developing soul reaper fighting techniques, yet you are still fighting on your human body; the only reason you were able to take my hands of you was because you used your spiritual pressure, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to even touch me. So you can fight using hakuda, hands combat and maybe, but just maybe, kido and shunpa, demon magic and flash step, yet you won't leave your human body, so you won't be using a zanpaktou like Ichigo did."

"Ichigo…" Tatsuki said with a faint voice "He is no longer a soul reaper… I wonder what happened to him…"

"I wonder." Yoruichi said while sighing.

"Those gates opened and took him away…"

Tatsuki wasn't aware of what those gates were, but Yoruichi did and as soon as Tatsuki mentioned them she had a hunch and her eyes opened wide as the revelation came down.

"Did you say gates?"

"Yeah… they were very creepy, it was held by two giant skeletons and when they opened a sword pierced Ichigo's chest and took him to the other side… which seemed blurry and red, like if there was only boiling blood bubbles around."

The description was kind of odd, yet she understood that they could only be hell's gates. But why? She avoided making any expression so that she could keep Tatsuki away from the topic until she was ready for the real battle.

"Beats me." Yoruichi lied "But we will find it out, and then we will bring Ichigo back."

"Yeah." Tatsuki said while standing up "So, we have no time to lose, let's go phase two."

Yoruichi smiled.

"Right, now that you are all worn out is perfect."

"Really?"

"The second phase is about increasing your spiritual pressure. You just made enough to fight, we need to raise it enough to endure a lot of tough enemies; this phase is the longest and it could take years."

"But we don't have years!"

"That's right, that's why we are doing it the risky way, yet it will take time anyway, at least a month or three, but better than ten years, right?"

"Right." Tatsuki said sighing "How are we going to do that?"

"Spiritual pressure usually rises while the soul is in danger of being destroyed; it's like that phrase 'what does not kill you makes you stronger'. We are going to use that in order to raise your spiritual pressure."

"Oh, I get it!" Tatsuki said smiling "So, if I'm worn out I'm in danger, thus my spiritual pressure should rise."

"Let's get started."

Yet they were interrupted when they heard the sound of an explosion. A girl screamed somewhere away, out of the training floor, maybe the empty store was under attack.

"Stay here!"

Yoruichi ran off the training floor faster than what Tatsuki's eyes could follow.

"Like if!"

And so she ran towards the stairs.


	6. Phantom Swords

_**Author Note: **__This is a REALLY short chapter, and it's because I'm going into a hiatus status for a while, but worry not, it's just because I just gave my PSU (college selection exam) and my mind is too tired to write right now. I'll be resting around Christmas and New Year eve, so I might not post new chapters until January, which I'll try to do anyway. Enjoy!_

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**Phantom Swords**

As soon as she got close to the stairs and was about to climb them up she saw Yoruichi passing by at high speed. She just had a glimpse of her passing by her side, in a split second she was already at the other side of the training floor, leaving someone wearing black on the floor, probably a soul reaper. Then, as she ran back to check what happened she noticed that the soul reaper was actually Rukia.

"Rukia?" Tatsuki yelled concerned. "Yoruichi, tell me what happened!"

"She was attacked."

"Hollow?"

"Not exactly." Yoruichi replied concerned "A prisoner from hell."

Tatsuki stared at Yoruichi confused, frowning, wondering what the hell that meant. Ichigo never told her anything about hell, and he told the truth about Rukia, hollows, soul society and hueco mundo, so why didn't he say anything about hell? It could only be that he knew nothing at all, maybe he was as clueless as she was. She was about to ask about hell, but the question didn't come from her lips.

"Is she ok?" Tatsuki asked instead.

"I'm healing her with kidou." Yoruichi explained "It'll take a while, so you might take a break now."

Tatsuki knew there was nothing she could do about it, so she just stared at Rukia, hopping that she would be fine. It was hard seeing her so injured; there was a flow of blood falling from her forehead, her right arm was covered in blood from the elbow and the waist seemed to be beat up, as the kimono was roughly cut under her knees. Rukia slightly opened her eyes and the first shape she recognized was Tatsuki.

"You…" she said weakly.

"You are fine." Tatsuki said smiling "Yoruichi is healing you now."

"Why can't I remember you?"

"Because I wasn't that important either," Tatsuki said while a rough laugh came by "most of the time on Earth you spent it with Ichigo and Orihime instead of me… until now I wasn't very involved on this."

"Why can't I remember them?" Rukia asked weakly as she extended her right hand towards Tatsuki. Yoruichi right hand touched the arm and for an instance it stopped bleeding. Tears came around Rukia's face "Why do I feel so lost? Who were them to me? Why every time I release Sode no Shirayuki I feel that something is missing?"

"I don't know." She didn't really know.

"And yet I feel that you hold the answer." Rukia said sighing "Why?"

"You can ask why as much as you want," Tatsuki said "but it won't bring any answers."

Rukia smiled.

"I guess you are right." She closed her eyes as her hand touched Yoruichi's "Thanks for healing me."

"Any time," She said "but don't get used to it."

"Tatsuki Arisawa." Rukia said faintly "Come here."

Tatsuki got nearer, then Rukia took her neck and drove Tatsuki's ear to her mouth height and spoke weakly.

"They are looking for you. They fear you."

And so Rukia fell asleep, leaving Tatsuki worried and puzzled.


	7. Sunset Sword

**Sunset Swords**

The sun was shinning with might as Orihime was pushed by Rangiku. She held her from the wrist and Orihime could not find any way to break through her mighty hand. She just wouldn't leave her and she was taking her everywhere, primly to shop.

Orihime could not care the less for new outfit at all; she just smiled at Rangiku's kindness towards her and waited for it to be over.

As she tried out dresses of all kind Rangiku detected a glimpse of sorrow on Orihime''s face.

"Oh, come on girl!" she said "Try this out!"

She sighed as she delivered herself to Rangiku.

"That's right, now get into business!"

Rangiku made all kind of combination between jeans, blouses, shirts, dresses, skirts and as much clothes as she could think of, like she was experimenting on Orihime. As she was dresses like a doll a little giggle escaped from his mouth and she finally gave herself a rest as she and Rangiku played, leaving out of her mind for an instance the thought of Ulquiorra. There was time and instance to have fun despite the pain, and this girl was just so fun, so full of life… she felt a strong warm feeling around her, she felt true friendship... but she couldn't tell, she didn't remember what friendship was in the very first place, not after spending so much time wandering around aimlessly on purgatory.

Her eyes and Rangiku's meet making Rangiku feel a little bit uncomfortable for the kind of look Orihime had. It was too intense; she was like a newborn trying to understand the boundaries of their relationship. She wanted to know if, like she did with Ulquiorra, she should also act on the same way to Rangiku and she raised her head and headed it towards Rangiku's lips.

The moment was interrupted when they heard someone being pounded on the ground. Someone was seriously hurt, and nobody cared. A woman on a black kimono was being hit by a monster and nobody reacted, they walked aside, like she was invicible.

"Somebody must help her!" Orihime yelled as she went out.

She felt she could do something, she felt the power beneath her chest, but she didn't remember how to use it. She knew she could fight, but she didn't know how to, she just stared at how the woman stood up. She was short, black hair, and deep big eyes around a serious face that kept it together even in the edge of defeat.

"Kuchiki-san."

She didn't know how the name came around her lips, she couldn't possibly remember her. It was a reflect, did they know? The strong feeling also came around her; Orihime cared about her, without knowing why.

At her back, a flying monster covered on pure black, with a hole on the chest and a white mask came to attack them. She had to defend her somehow.

"Santenkesshun!"

The name also came all alone, she didn't know what she was doing, but the monster was reflected by a gold triangle shield that came out of nowhere and covered them.

"What the hell is that?" the monster asked.

Orihime had no idea, and Kuchiki just stared at her puzzled and scared.

"How do you know the Kuchiki name?" the girl asked "And what the hell are you?"

Orihime had no clue at all. As she tried to come out with something, a white lighting came from the store windows and crashed with the monster. Rangiku jumped out of the broken window of the store and kept her next to Orihime.

"Matsumoto, vice-captain!" Kuchiki said.

"A bad day for forgetting my gikongan at home." She said while smiling "But who cares! Let's give this hollow a lesson!"

"Hollow?" Orihime asked confused.

"No time to explain." Matsumoto said "Can you cover us with your shield?"

"I guess… yes, I can."

"Kuchiki! We'll get you cover so you can finish him, all right?"

"Got it." She replied with a strong gaze.

Kuchiki stood up as she said out loud "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki" and the shape of the katana she held on her hands slightly changed to a more white one, and a ribbon came along the hilt. Orihime didn't understand why the sword changed, but she didn't care, she just concentrated on keeping the shield mighty as she could, while Rangiku ran towards the hollow. She first kicked him, but she was stopped by the hollow's hand and was sent backwards, but her hands touched the concrete and stopped the thrust as she pointed her hand towards the hollow.

"Soukatsui!"

A great blaze of blue flames flew towards the hollow who didn't seem to get affected at all, but that didn't matter, Kuchiki had already frozen his legs.

"Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!"

A huge wave of snow went directly towards the hollow and frozen him. Just as he got frozen, the floor seemed to open a gate. It was hell's gate, the same one that took Ulquiorra. And as the frozen hollow went inside it, there on the boiling blood like realm, they could glimpse an eye.

"Ku… Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime mumbled.

"I… Ichigo…" Kuchiki mumbled.

Neither of them knew what that name meant; the gate closed and Kuchiki fainted.

"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime yelled.

"She was already exhausted." Rangiku said as she examined Kuchiki "She has some wounds, using that technique must have left her unconscious."

"I'll take care of her."

Faster than what her eyes could follow, a black skinned woman had already Kuchiki on her arms and was about to leave.

"Wait!" Orihime asked "What's all this?"

"This, little lady." Yoruichi said "It's a conflict between heaven and hell."

And so she left, leaving Orihime even more confused. Heaven, hell, purgatory, what was the meaning of all this? Why didn't she remember? There was something terribly wrong with her and she fell on tears as Rangiku held her.

"It's going to be fine."

But Rangiku was somewhat scared inside. If the legendary Yoruichi Shihoun had showed up, blowing up her cover on the real world, and if as she said there was a trouble in hell, then things could get worse than ever for the soul society.

Orihime lay on Rangiku's arms as she hoped to be on Ulquiorra's instead. The missing was the worst part of her stay on Earth.


	8. Forsaken Sword

**Forsaken Sword**

"Thanks for the help all along." Rukia said as she opened the sekaimon "I'll be on my way now."

"Remember to check it out." Yoruichi remained her.

"Yes, I'll ask for Ichigo."

Rukia gave Tatsuki once last glimpse before she crossed over to the soul society. The path taken by being guided by a hell butterfly was pretty straightforward, neat and with no obstacles. It took her around thirty seconds to get into the soul society with no hassle. There was something weird though, she felt like she didn't had to leave and since her meeting with Tatsuki things became a little bit twisted on that world too.

"Rukia!" yelled a man's voice.

Rukia turned aside, but there was no one around. The voice was familiar, a little bit sharp and full of energy; it caused her a little bit of nostalgia as she walked around the paths that leaded towards the Kuchiki house, where Byakuya might be- or not- waiting for her arrival. Everything was so different, somehow, she felt like if the link that held her to reality was lost, yet she walked forward. This day was very important for her, it was the day she was promoted to be a vice captain. She was very excited, Ukitake finally chose her for the work and she knew she could do it, she would finally rise on positions and maybe her brother would feel a bit proud of her. She walked at a slow peace around the corner, and for an instance, she though she saw an orange haired soul reaper walking on the other direction, but when she stepped backwards her eyes could not find him.

She took a deep breathe and she keep walking on a straight as everything seemed to be a monotonous walk around of black kimonos, white walls and a very still pale blue sky above them. Something was off, this had never bored her, neither affected her anyway, it was the world she was born in, yet her heart felt that it belonged somewhere else.

"Congratulations, Kuchiki-san."

The voice came from another vice captain, a female one that was only some inches taller. Rukia smiled as she shook hands with her.

"Thank you, Hinamori vice captain."

"Call me Momo! We're colleagues now!" she replied cheerfully "Everyone is glad to see that we are recovering seated officers, after all we've lost many captains and vice captains. It's so sad that the six division vice captain disappeared."

"Did you know him?" Rukia asked curious; she felt like she should know about that.

"No, but I bet he was a great guy."

Weird, usually all the vice captains should know each other, but Rukia didn't want to accuse Hinamori about anything, after all she was just going to get a glimpse on the vice captains worlds. She was holding on her hand the ribbon that would be around her left arm holding the division insignia. She sighed as Hinamori leaded her towards the main tower where the ceremony would be held.

They got there in time; captain Ukitake held the insignia carved in a small piece wood that Rukia would be holding for who knows how long. She smiled as Ukitake's face filled her with a warm sensation. It was finally the day, the day she wasn't recognize for being a noble, but the day she was actually recognized for her skills… she wanted everyone to see her, standing right there because of her achievements and not because of her name… she wanted he to see her… he? Who was he? She rubbed her face a little bit before the captain started talking and then she stood still.

"I've seen in you one of the most responsible souls I've got to see; Kuchiki, you've worked hard, you've polished your skills and now we are seeing the results of that hard work. I know you can do it, and thus I decided to bestow this important title on you."

"Thank you very much, captain Ukitake, I'm really flattered."

Byakuya's emotionless expression didn't say much, just as always. Was he proud? Did he think it was about time or too late? Rukia couldn't tell, but she was already happy that he was there, seeing her getting promoted. She smiled as Ukitake attached the insignia around her left arm.

"Congratulations, Rukia Kuchiki, vice captain."

* * *

At night she was all alone around her room. It was a day of a great celebration with the others vice captains, who always took a chance to get drunk, whenever they could. She was all tired out after being for hours around so many drunken men and women celebrating her promotion, and it was weird that around so many people she felt so alone; she felt that someone was missing.

"You know what you are missing, don't you?"

The words came from the same sharp voice that received her. A tall orange punk haired man greeted her by waving his hand, while Rukia jumped off bed and prepared to take her sword out. The man smiled.

"You are not real, are you?" Rukia asked while nervously smiling.

"That's a matter of perception." The man said as he walked around the room "On one side I exist, so I'm real, on the other side I'm not really here, so I'm not. I'm here because you want me to be here."

"I don't even know you!" Rukia yelled as she drew her sword out "Leave me alone!"

"Right now you are being used." The man said as she walked towards her; Rukia didn't drop the sword and the man didn't seem to care "They are manipulating everyone thoughts and I'm a part of you, a part you have to hold on to."

"What do you mean?"

He smiled as he reached his hands towards Rukia and made her drop the zanpaktou.

"You can't forget me Rukia, I'm your only link. You can't forget who I am, the next thing you'll forget is yourself and then you'll be on their mercy."

"Who's mercy? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't be scared." The man said with a serious look on his face "Hold on me, and you won't have anything to fear."

Rukia saw how his face was every second nearer to her and she was about to freak out, but at the same time her heart beat fast and demanded to let the man act as he wanted. And the nearer he came to her lips, the more Rukia accepted him. Rukia embraced the man and received a sweet kiss. She might not have remembered the man, but she knew she waited for that kiss for a long, long time. It was a fantasy that never came true until then, a secret she held on the deep side of her, hiding it from herself and everyone. She loved that man, and she wanted to make him hers. She closed her eyes while being kissed, and when she opened them she noticed that she was all alone in the room.

Something weird happened, something was missing, but it wasn't possible. It was just her mind playing tricks. She went to bed once again, waiting to fall sleep and a name slipped out of her lips.

"Ichigo…"


	9. Stronger Swords

_**Author Note: **__I give you my deepest apologies for taking so long uploading this chapter; I just entered college and I've been really, really busy to write anything. But here are we, probably I won't be able to do regular uploads, but I'll try. Enjoy!_

* * *

**Stronger Swords**

"We're done for today."

"Not yet!"

Tatsuki was a strong headed person; it didn't matter how many times she fell, she always stood up. Her face was covered in blood, her nose was broken and the bleeding covered her lips and chin, her legs were almost near broken, her arms were a bit twisted, and yet a powerful spiritual pressure covered her whole body allowing movement. This was the first time that she let her all power out; around four meters square there was a blue mist of power spinning with might, it seemed like a mini tornado around Tatsuki. She gave a flash step without noticing and then she thought to find an opening to hit Yoruichi's head with might, but her punch was stopped by Yoruichi's hand, making it an almost futile attempt, but at the very least a small cut was opened around Yoruichi's cheek, because of the spread of the spiritual pressure.

Yoruichi smiled as Tatsuki fell in front of her, all tired out, exhausted. She grabbed her and took her into a hot spring where her wounds were all healed in a matter of seconds.

Tatsuki sighed as she recovered and Yoruichi went inside too; the cut was healed within a second.

"You've done great improvement in short time." Yoruichi mentioned "I've been forcing you too much, but you've been able to withstand it, your spiritual pressure is now enough to get into a fight."

"But it's not enough yet." Tatsuki replied "After all I'm no match for you."

Yoruichi laughed out loud as she dipped deeper into the hot spring.

"It would take you a life time to be as strong as me." Yoruichi commented as she moved her legs around the water "You're good as it is; you are learning how to use flash step, I originally pretended that to be the last thing to teach you, but I decided to teach you only one more thing after that in case of emergencies."

"And what is it?"

"A powerful technique called shunkou." Yoruichi explained, now with a serious tone in her voice "It's a technique that combines hakuda, hand to hand, shunpa, flash step, and kidou, demon magic. You'll be covered in your whole spiritual pressure in form of demon magic while you fight in a hand to hand style. It's the ultimate technique for you; it'll be your trump card."

"Sounds powerful." Tatsuki commented "Did Ichigo master it?"

"I remember but little about him." Yoruichi confessed "While I wasn't totally affected by the brain wash there are some memories gone. I did teach Ichigo some things, but he was always a sword fighter, he never developed kidou or hakuda like you, he used sword techniques and he was pretty powerful. I knew he would surpass me, and probably everyone"

"I see…"

Tatsuki was a little bit sad because of it. Ichigo used to be really powerful, he used to protect them all, and then one day, all out of the sudden he lost all his powers. Now it was up to her, but she wasn't any near to be as good as him.

Yoruichi rubbed her hair and she rejected the hand immediately, but when she saw Yoruichi's caring eyes she headed her head down.

"You are doing good Tatsuki. You learn fast, and you learn well. Ichigo had been fighting for around a year or two, while you been a month training, you can't expect to compare. I'm preparing you for battle, and when battle comes you'll get stronger, because you'll have something to protect."

"What do you mean?"

"When a person is ready to fight, it's because that person has something to protect, it can be anything, his/her own self, pride, others, anything at all. The more you hold dear to the thing you protect, the harder you fight. When the time for a fight comes you'll see that you'll win, because you can't afford to lose that."

Tatsuki smiled. She had so much to protect, so many people she held affection, so many who she wanted to save.

She got off the water and took a towel near by to start drying herself.

"Come on Yoruichi, I want to get this technique mastered by today."

Yoruichi smiled.

"That's just like Ichigo."

* * *

"You got the weirdest powers!" Rangiku mumbled as they crossed the door.

Orihime remembered but little of what that place was. She was able to remember where the key was hide, and briefly about where she used to keep some things. The fact that some memories were coming back together was a relief, yet while being with Rangiku she felt very embarrassed for that incident. She didn't know what she was doing, she was about to kiss her because she misunderstood friendship with love. After being that short time with Ulquiorra on Earth and then while remembering Ichigo she noticed what was the difference, and she didn't like the feeling of being embarrassed at all.

Rangiku checked the fridge for food, while Orihime sat on the couch. There was in front of her a coup of coffee in a table in front of her and next to it, there was a diary. She took it and as she started reading some pages, more and more memories were coming along. Her friends, her powers, her adventures, and then….

_Zum! _A white flash covered her head. Two gates opening at the day she died. The day she decided to stand up for her friends, the day that wasn't supposed to exist.

Ichigo had died that day, and then he was revived as a hollow, but that… that didn't happen! Something had changed the timeline! Instead of that happening, she stood up for her friends, she covered in her healing technique and then she fought Ulquiorra, but they both died on the process. She remembered their conversation, previous to their death.

"_Ulquiorra, we're able to paint tomorrow with our hands. Why do you must follow this path?_"

"_Because I do not understand_" he answered. "_If lights becomes brighter so does darkness. Are we light and darkness? Are you the heart that shines brighter on the darkness of my heartless chest?_"

"_I can be_" she replied. "_I want to stand by myself and protect everyone. I can protect you too_."

"_If you want to protect your friends, then kill me_" Ulquiorra stated. "_I exist to kill, I'm a hollow and that's my instinct. You're a woman, a human, and your desire is to protect. We are meant to fight_"

"_Is that really it?_" Orihime asked and she slapped Ulquiorra as she stood up. "_Snap out of it! Hollow, shinigami, arrancar, every one of them come from a human soul! So, please... don't you think you could be human once again? __Or at least try?_"

Alter that conversation, they fought and they hurt each other deadly, and as they were about to cross to even another life, they spoke one last time:

"_I love you_" she told him. "_So... if we meet again, I shall be able to share my heart with you_"

"_I'll be waiting for that day to come... because the only heart that has ever shone in my darkness is yours. Goodbye, Inoue Orihime._"

"_With these hands" _she said before Ulquiorra dissipated in the wind_. "I will protect those who I care and paint the dark colors of your lost heart_"

As she remembered the words tears came by. She finally had her memory back.

How long did she wandered around aimlessly on purgatory? How long had it been since she and Ulquiorra had that meeting? Tears came by Orihime's face… the story itself, those events weren't supposed to happen, yet they happened. How? How did she re-write story?

"Orihime? Are you ok?" Rangiku asked as she walked towards her.

"I think this is my fault." Orihime replied scared.

"What?"

"I burnt off the script…" she mumbled "I destroyed destiny… and now future is but uncertain for us…" she gave a last glimpse to Rangiku, scared as hell "Rangiku! I think I'll be the reason of why we're all going to die!" she cried as she burst into more tears.


	10. Sword of discord

**Sword of Discord**

Once the name was said by her lips, it could not leave her mind. And as the memory of the name came to her, so it did all those other memories of their past together. The boy who became a soul reaper; it was because of her, and then that same boy saved her when she was about to be executed, that boy fought alongside her for the sake of both worlds… that boy.

"Ichigo Kurosaki…"

How could she have forgotten him? Once her memories came back, tears also came by her head as she realized that she was alone; no one else remembered Ichigo. No, there was someone who did, in the real world, but how could she? If what she heard from Ichigo's ghost was right, then no one should have been able to remember… the prisoner of hell feared Tatsuki; there was a link to that.

As she started thinking she started pacing around the hall nervously, wondering about what to do. Her first thought and impulse was to rendezvous with Tatsuki and Yoruichi to come up with some kind of explanation for this phenomenon, but she was a vice captain now, she couldn't just leave with no explanation, also she could gather a lot more information now, wandering around the Soul Society other than going to the real world.

She finally came up to decide to step out of her house and then to step into the vice captains meeting; she would start looking out for explanations right away.

* * *

"What do you mean?" Rangiku asked concerned.

She didn't understand a word from Orihime's mouth. She was talking nonsense, yet it could be that she was just freaking out for the whole adrenaline of the battle, adrenaline she might have not been used to.

"I don't know what to do!" Orihime screamed as she stood up, pacing nervously, almost like she was in paranoia "Everyone's life is in danger!"

She bumped against the table and she fell back breaking the cup of coffee and the shards cut her skin as she twisted around in the table in horror. She took the diary on her hands for a second and then she threw it away scared.

"Orihime! What's going on?"

Rangiku could not understand what the hell was doing; she saw herself forced to punch her in the waist hard enough to pass her out.

Orihime fainted and Rangiku rolled her over so she could remove the shards from the broken cup off her back; she sighed, what was all that about? She had no idea, but she knew that things weren't as usual as always. A prisoner of hell attacked Karakura, Yoruichi Shihoun appeared out of nowhere, and now this. The girl was too strange, she obviously held more information than what she could remember and either she was playing dumb or she really didn't remember a thing. All she could do back there was to lie her down on the couch and heal her wounds with kidou. It took less than a minute, and then she walked away and picked her phone to make a call to the Soul Society.

"Matsumoto, is that you?"

"Yes, Captain."

There was a brief cold silence before there was a reply.

"What's wrong?"

He knew that when Rangiku was serious, something had to be seriously wrong, and somehow, even when Rangiku couldn't make any sense of Orihime's words, she feared them.

"There's been an attack from hell."

* * *

"All done for today."

Tatsuki was about to reply, yet she was way too exhausted this time to refute. Her whole body was wrapped in pain, her legs barely moved; they were crimson red, as her arms were, burnt into more spiritual pressure than what Tatsuki could handle at the moment. She noticed the progress, she noticed that she wasn't worthless anymore, yet she needed to master that technique soon and it was taking more than what she thought.

Yoruichi sighed; there was no need for Tatsuki to say that she wanted to keep going until she mastered shunko, but she was in a pitiful state, a state in which she couldn't even speak, just to try and keep enough energy to survive.

"It's the first day." Yoruichi said as she led Tatsuki towards the hot spring "You can't possibly expect to master shunko in one day, it can take several months."

Tatsuki wanted to reply, yet she couldn't. She dipped in the water and the wounds were healed fast, but the spiritual pressure wasted wouldn't come back that easily. She still couldn't talk and yet her mouth was about to say "I need to master it now." Something reckless, something like what Ichigo would do. Yoruichi could tell Tatsuki's motivation, she had been feeling worthless and useless for a very long time, she could only watch, and now, for the first time, she was about to be able to fight back and prove that she was worthy.

"I'll do everything I can to speed it up." Yoruichi promised "But right now you can manage to do ok, take tomorrow as a day off, you're family is probably worried, and so your friends, you've been spending most of your vacation time here, you need to show them there's nothing to worry about."

But they were not worried at all, and that was because they were all away from Tatsuki. A family she despised, friends that always went and go, the only ones who she cared about were those ones who were around her when she most needed them. Ichigo and Orihime, her true friends, people who showed real concern about her. With Orihime gone and Ichigo imprisoned in hell, what there was too…?

_Zum! _The sudden feel of Orihime's soul became clear to her as she healed on the water. She was so focused on her own power while training that she wasn't able to tell, but now she could. She was back in her home, she was safe.

A tear of joy came down her right eye as she left the hot spring.

"Thanks…" Tatsuki said weakly "I'll take tomorrow off… I'll go home… now."

"Do you need help?" Yoruichi asked as she noticed Tatsuki's state.

"No… it'll be a good practice of shunpo, won't it?"

And so she did; she used shunpo to get out of her, even though she was so weak. Yoruichi knew why, it was because she just realized about Orihime's whereabouts. She sighed, as she dipped into the hot spring. She also needed Tatsuki to grow stronger, because it was her only chance to get Kisuke back, and for that sake she needed her to master shunko as soon as possible. Once she did, she would be strong enough to keep up with most of her enemies, but not all of them, she knew she would leave her inexperienced, yet true experience is gained through battle, and that was something she had to live on her own; she could only prepare her for that, everything else was up to her.

"She thinks she is useless…" she mumbled "What about me? Dipping in a hot spring, wasting so much strength, and leaving the burden fall on the next generation…"

She knew that as Tatsuki was the only one that wasn't affected by the brainwash, she would be the only one able to go through hell safely, without being manipulated. She was afraid of being used, to finally lose every single link to her past. Tatsuki wouldn't, and her link to her past would make her able to go through this trial.

"Story has been changed." Yoruichi mumbled as she dipped deeper in the water "And you are the only one who has been able to keep your own self."

At the very moment story was re-wrote, Yoruichi understood that it was over, she knew that even she lost some memories, and her only hope was those who could still remember. Those who couldn't would fall in their hands.

Was Tatsuki all alone in this? There was no one else who remembered?

* * *

"Good to see you here, Rukia."

"Thanks, Renji."

They kept treating each other as usual even after Rukia's promotion, yet Rukia was doubtful; none of them remembered Ichigo, and he told her that if she couldn't remember then she would fall in their mercy, whose? It didn't matter, if it came from Ichigo, she believed him 100%, but what should she do? Should she warn Renji? Would he believe her? Could she make her remember?

There was a sharp sound around the room, and then a lousy noise announced that there was an emergency.

The vice captains looked around astonished as hell butterflies came around the room to announce a disturbing message.

"Hell is…" Rukia mumbled terrified "Announcing war?"


	11. Death's sword

**Death's sword**

"What the hell does this mean?" Hinamori asked terrified.

"The captains have started a move; they are heading to the senkaimon!" Nanao announced as she headed to the door "We need to rendezvous with each captain now!"

"Understood." Most vice captains replied as they started to move.

Renji was about to leave too, but he noticed that Rukia was frozen solid.

"Rukia, what's wrong? You have to get going too."

"Yes…" she replied as she and Renji left the room.

Rukia tried to go as fast as she could to the senkaimon, she had to speak to Ukitake, at the very least she could try to make him understand, he was not only a captain, but an understanding person. It might be her only choice.

As the captains and vice captains arrived to the senkaimon, they could see that the giant door to the real world started changing its shape. Two skeletons rose from the ground and held the door as the color of the door changed into a crimson red one.

"The seikaimon was turned into a hell gate!" Iba cried as he stood before captain Komamura.

Rukia was next to his captain, as she gave a quick glimpse through everyone's faces. Each one had a very different reaction; Byakuya, as always, seemed rather unaffected, the general commander was also tranquil, waiting for something too happen, Zaraki and Mayuri quite intrigued and interested, Komamura and Toshiro concerned, Soifon and Kyoraku also waiting to see what was going to happen.

Rukia drew her sword out as she noticed that something bad was about to happen, and yet she knew she wasn't strong enough to fight back what was coming, but if at least she could do something…

"The gate is opening." Toshiro said as everyone else also started drawing their swords.

And once it opened what came from it got everybody puzzled, but Rukia; she was shocked, her eyes opened wide as she dropped her sword and she walked forward.

"Ichigo…" she mumbled in low voice.

"Kuchiki!" Ukitake shouted "What are you doing?"

But Rukia didn't stop, while she stared at Ichigo, she could not stop moving forward. It was him; the orange punk hair, the black blade, the black overcoat shihakusho, there was no doubt it was his bankai, and that he was walking among them.

Everyone halted through Rukia's move, no one saw it coming as she reached for Ichigo.

"Ichigo!" she yelled as she got in front of him.

Rukia expected to see joy in Ichigo's eyes, to see relief, or at the very least to see his usual 'everything will be fine' smile, but instead, his eyes showed confusions and they seemed to be annoyed.

"Who are you, soul reaper?"

The word 'soul reaper' was especially cold from him. As their eyes met, Rukia could tell that he wasn't the Ichigo that she remembered, he was different, and different from the guy she imagined kissing. He was cold, and he didn't hesitate in raising his sword.

"Answer me."

"I'm Rukia Kuchiki." Rukia replied, hopping that Ichigo would remember.

"Nice to meet ya."

The blade would have cut her in the half if it wasn't for Byakuya's quick move. His blade covered Rukia who jumped backwards and grabbed her sword once again.

As she tried to go back and meet with Ichigo again, she noticed that every single captain was about to attack Ichigo, just Ukitake fell behind in order to ask her what she just did.

"Do you know him, Kuchiki?"

Rukia could not reply, her eyes were focused on how Ichigo's blade reflected nine captains blade faster than what her eyes could follow and then she noticed that something was about to go seriously wrong. Ichigo's hand was reaching his head, at the same time that the captains and vice captains were about to release their zanpaktous.

"STOP IT, ICHIGO!"

It was too fast for anyone to notice. Ichigo was too fast; he escaped from the captains' range and he took Rukia with him.

She could barely tell when Ichigo did grabbed her and she was a bit lost too in where they were; there were several white buildings around and a great circular space with nothing but the floor around, they should be near of that tower, the one in which she spent so much time imprisoned. It brought her memories back, but before she could say anything Ichigo was about to slash her. She stopped the blade with hers and she noticed that Ichigo wasn't even trying; he wanted to test Rukia's strength.

"How is it that you know my name?" he asked.

"How is it that you didn't know mine?" she replied.

Rukia jumped backwards and she knew that she was done for, so at the very least, she could try to do something.

"Dance, sode no shirayuki!"

The blade changed slightly, becoming the pure white ice blade that always gave her hope in her most desperate battles, yet this time she knew it couldn't possibly save her, it was just her way to say goodbye to her friend and ally in battle. Ichigo was going to crush her and she came to accept it; in the end she was weak.

"Some no mai…"

Even before she could even think of using that technique, Ichigo was already slashing his sword against her; she could deflect them barely, Ichigo's swordplay was way better than hers, she almost dropped her blade as the blades hit each other, and so she noticed that her sword would eventually break against Ichigo's, it was way too powerful, she could notice how he was covered in such an amazing power. It was over.

Rukia's blade was broken in two equal pieces, one that flew away, and the broken edge of the sword that remained attached to the hilt.

"You dared me to a fight being so weak?" Ichigo asked confused "Are you willing to die over pride? Is it that you want to die? Or is it something else?"

Rukia smiled; she was about to get killed, but not from Ichigo.

"You are not Ichigo." Rukia replied smiling at ease "Ichigo Kurosaki would never ask that kind of things."

"Kurosaki?" Ichigo asked even more confused "My name is Ichigo, I have no last names."

Rukia frowned confused, but she knew it was over, so at the moment Ichigo decided to kill her, she would her best to survive enough seconds to fight back and use the third dance, and kill him too. He wasn't Ichigo, and if he was, then she could at least try to save him from the misery behind those eyes…

No, she couldn't even think of that, she dropped her blade as she waited for death, because she was unable to kill him, she couldn't go through that again, and she couldn't kill the man she loved twice. But Ichigo didn't kill her; he wasn't even near enough to stab her.

"Why?" he asked "Why are you so willing to die?"

"I can't kill you." Rukia said serious, but for the first time in her life she opened herself to Ichigo "I can't kill the man I…!"

The phrase was interrupted by a shower of cherry blossom petals that fell towards Ichigo. He was able to stop each petal with a swing of his blade, but as soon as he did his right arm was frozen due to Hyorinmaru's ice, which Ichigo broke in a matter of seconds to then throw two Getsuga's Tenshou toward Koujiki Asoushi Jiso and Rikirou Tengen Myou. Latter and quick blade hit hits with overwhelming power, Zaraki's blade, yet Ichigo had no trouble at deflecting it. The other captains were surely there too, waiting for the best chance to take him down.

Rukia was pulled aside from the captains' battlefield by Renji.

"What the hell was all that about, Rukia you idiot?" Renji asked terrified and concerned "You could have died!"

"Renji…" she mumbled as she stared as Ichigo.

A dark smile crossed through Ichigo who once again was in front of Rukia. He punched Renji and he was sent away flying backwards as Ichigo's blade was stabbed in the floor.

"Sorry, but I'll be sending you away from here." Ichigo said as a senkaimon opened in the ground "And you better get stronger or next time you'll be killed."

"Ichigo…!"

As she started falling in the senkaimon, she noticed that there was a glimpse of the real Ichigo somewhere inside, but then she noticed something that made her chill. Ichigo didn't only bring a mask out, but also a hole covered his chest. He was becoming a complete hollow.

Rukia face was filled with tears as the door to the soul society was closed and she fell deeper. What was going to happen with Ichigo? What would happen with the Soul Society? Distress, that was for sure, chaos, and now she was sent away, falling through what seemed to be an endless fall among the clouds… then she was already on the real world. She noticed that next to her, the broken edge of sode no shirayuki fell and she grabbed the hilt.

"I'm sorry." Rukia said as she started stopping the fall "I'm not worthy carrying you."

She was back in the real world, but the Soul Society was in crisis and she could do nothing; she hated being useless and powerless, but she remembered Ichigo's words. He said that she better got stronger… he probably didn't kill her, because deep down he was hopping to get rescued, or at the very least that was what Rukia wanted to believed.

She held Sode no Shirayuki's hilt with might as she became focused in her task. She had to learn and master the bankai somehow.


	12. Towards the last meeting

**Towards the last meeting**

There it was. Orihime's soul was way clear now, resting inside her home as she used to do at that time, 6:30 P.M. It was kind of nostalgic to think of those times in which she came by with no excuses, with no concern for their future; now as she walked towards the door she realized that they were in danger and Orihime could have also forgotten about her. The thought was painful, but she had to be ready for that. She knocked the door and immediately the latch twisted and the door opened.

Tatsuki was shocked by the sudden appearance of the stranger woman who opened the door. She seemed young, she had huge breast and a beautiful hair, which color seemed to be around gold and some kind of dark brown. She felt a little bit intimidated, but the woman's face was kind and sweet.

"May I help you?"

"Is Orihime here?" Tatsuki asked a little bit blushed.

"Oh! So you are one of her friends!" she replied cheerfully "Come on in, I was afraid of leaving her alone."

Tatsuki walked in and she found Orihime sitting in the couch with some bandages around her right arm. When their eyes met she was ready to hear "who are you?", but she found a pleasing surprise.

"Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime asked as her face started glowing brightly.

Tatsuki shed some tears as she ran towards her. How could she have ever doubt of Orihime? If someone could remember her, it was her best friend, the one who always was there for her. Tatsuki didn't hesitate on hugging; she had felt so lonely without her, so alone, she didn't know if she could handle the doubt of her whereabouts, and without knowing if she was fine or if she needed her.

"Tatsuki…" Orihime said with a faint voice "Why is your…?"

Orihime doubted before asking; Tatsuki's spiritual pressure was now something very big, Rangiku also noticed that Tatsuki wasn't doing any effort in hiding it, it was as strong as a vice captain, maybe even more. Whatever the reason, Orihime didn't want to involve Tatsuki in whatever she started. It was her fault that everybody got their memories erased, she couldn't mix Tatsuki on it, and the matter of her great spiritual pressure would have to wait.

"Is there something wrong, Orihime?" Tatsuki asked concerned as she rubbed her hair.

"No, it's nothing." Orihime replied as she blinked "I'm happy to see you."

Rangiku smiled as she walked away from the living room, heading outside the house so that she could leave those girls alone, but as she was about to get out, she noticed that Rukia just came by the house.

"Kuchiki!"

She was next to the door, exhausted, her blade was drawn and it was broken; something had gone terribly wrong.

"Kuchiki, are you ok? What happened to you?"

She noticed the insignia attached around Rukia's arm, which meant she had been promoted into vice captain position. It was weird that she was unaware of that, but then again her assignment was an important one and soul society had been in distress lately.

She guided Rukia in and as soon as Tatsuki's and her eyes met, Rukia found something on her; hope.

"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime shouted as she stood up.

"Rukia!" Tatsuki said as she walked towards her "Hey! Are you ok?"

"I'm fine…"

"You're blade is broken!" Tatsuki yelled.

"That's the least of our worries…" Rukia said faintly "Matsumoto vice captain, I came here to… warn you."

"Warn me about what?"

"The Soul Society is under attack." Rukia said coldly as she sat in the floor against a wall "The whole Soul Society is in distress."

"Then we gotta go there!" Rangiku said.

"If we go there, we die." Rukia said even colder "Believe me, I saw the threat, there is nothing we can do."

"So we sit here and do nothing?" Rangiku asked annoyed "Kuchiki, that's our home we're talking about!"

"She knows that!" Tatsuki intervened "But look at her! It's evident that she managed to escape somehow, you can't ask her to go back there."

"I'm not asking her, I'm going there anyway."

But then she realized that she didn't have her gikongan with her; she left her at an apartment down street a few blocks from there. She had to start moving; yet as she was stuck on a human, it wasn't hard for Orihime to grab her arm and stop her.

"Rangiku-san, please don't go there alone!" Orihime asked "Let me go with you."

Rangiku smiled as she turned aside to hug Orihime briefly.

"This has nothing to do with you." Rangiku said softly "I can't let you come anyway, you can't go there without a hell butterfly so even if you wanted, you can't."

Was that it? All the training she did was for nothing? Tatsuki was pissed at the thought; if the battle was about to be taken in another realm that she couldn't enter, what was the point of training? Was it even worthy that she kept trying to master shunkou? And just as Orihime, she wasn't feeling ok with leaving Rangiku all alone in her luck on that realm, even without knowing what the hell happened, she could tell that she would die, how could she let her walk towards her own death? She wouldn't let anyone do that.

"Whatever is happening there, even if I die, I have to try at the very least, right?"

Rangiku made very clear that she was going there no matter what; she broke her hug with Orihime and she headed outside.

Orihime followed her and so Tatsuki and Rukia also ran after her. While following Rangiku, Tatsuki tried to think of a way, any way, to go there and help her. She knew she wasn't even half recovered from training, but if she could help Rangiku… and then, the only person who might know how to get there was Yoruichi.

"Orihime, Rukia, wait!"

"Tatsuki-chan, we can't stop!" Orihime replied "We can't let Rangiku-san go there all by herself! She'll get killed!"

"That's why I'm telling you to wait! There might be someone who can help us going there."

"Tatsuki! Are you crazy?" Rukia asked pissed "Even if you succeed, you are not ready!"

"Are you suggesting we let that girl walk towards her death?"

"We can't stop her!" Rukia replied "And if we go there, we are only getting killed as well."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I met the enemy!"

The three of them stopped running as Rangiku got farther away.

Rukia knew that Tatsuki would recognize the name, she was the very first one to tell her about Ichigo… but how would she react? If she told her it was Ichigo, she would recklessly want to go there by any mean; she had to come up with something else.

"He is too powerful." Rukia started trying to explain herself without mentioning Ichigo "He defeated captains, warrior with centuries of fighting experience and a vast of powers that could stop the world from spinning. Now, this guy managed to handle a battle against ten of them, how can you possibly think going there is not suicidal?"

"Then how did you make it back?" Tatsuki asked.

Rukia was taken unguarded, but she didn't let emotions spread around her head, yet it was unnecessary, Tatsuki could tell anyway.

"You didn't simply run away, your blade is broken, you fought him, but he didn't kill you, is it someone you know?"

"An old friend of mine…" Rukia said "That's why I know how strong he is."

"Is he by any chance Ichigo?"

"No."

Rukia wanted to avoid lying, but there was no other way; she couldn't possibly let Tatsuki take such a risk, her spiritual pressure was growing fast and she might be the only trump card they had. How would she convince her it was no Ichigo? An idea came by her head, but she rejected it immediately; there was one man that she loved as she loved Ichigo, one man that was very alike him, and if she talked of him, she felt like talking of Ichigo. But she wasn't able to do that, she wasn't able to stain her memory with that lie.

"I know its Ichigo; I can see it on your face."

"Is it true, Kuchiki-san?"

"No." Rukia said shedding tears, there was no other option "It was a man called Kaien."

To stain Kaien's memory with that lie hurt Rukia deeply, yet it was the only way that her face could seem sincere, as the tears came by her face. She walked towards Tatsuki and she grabbed her shirt.

"You don't know what it's like to be attacked by the man you love and see how he is destroying your home." Rukia said coldly "So don't try to understand me, just listen to me. We need to get stronger; we need to be able to stop him before he hurts more people. If we get stronger we can stop him, and we'll be able to save Ichigo as well, but as we are right now we won't do any good. The only chance they have, it's us, because we are the only ones who have their memories. So this is what we are going to do; we'll take as much time as it needs to get strong enough and then we'll strike back and fight, only then we'll be able to save Ichigo and stop Kaien, have I made myself clear?"

She could see the sorrow behind Rukia's eyes, which made her believe her. She hated thinking about leaving Rangiku on her own, but in the end she was right. The best thing the three of them could do was to get strong enough to fight back.

She stared at Orihime; she didn't want her involved in the whole mess, but she knew the stronger she was the safer she would be. The three of them were aware of each other's strength and made a decision.

It wasn't easy on Orihime either; she didn't want anybody to get killed for what she did, she wanted to end the whole thing alone, but she knew there was no stopping Rukia or Tatsuki. She could only train so that she could protect them.

The three of them exchanged a fired up determinate look and then Tatsuki spoke up.

"Let's go. There's only one woman who can make us stronger."


	13. Double Edged Sword

_**Author Note: **__After a short break, I'm back in town! And I have thrown a poll in my profile, the question is: which battle would you like to see coming in the heroine complex? So make sure to post your vote, the most voted fight will come to happen in the future ;). Thanks for following the story! I noticed several alerts, many hits and very nice reviews, nevertheless short xD. So keep it that way, and let's keep going on =D!_

* * *

**Double Edged Sword**

By the time she arrived in the Soul Society, Rangiku could see in how much distress it was; Hollows completely covered in black blanks were attacking as many soul reapers as they could, the sky was whole red and the spiritual pressures rose as she walked by.

"What the hell is happening here?"

She started running forward, following the huge spiritual pressure, but before her stood a hollow.

"Growl, Haineko!"

The ashes that came from her sword covered the hollow and made it fall, but it wasn't disappearing, the ashes were unable to kill it for some reason, however Rangiku decided to act fast and she imprisoned it with kidou and left running towards the Sohyaku hill, where the battle was taking place.

It didn't take her long to arrive there, but what she met wasn't very nice.

"Matsumoto, take cover!"

It was too fast for her to react. She was already cut before she could realize; a black blade from an orange haired man had cut through her abdomen in a straight line and she fell towards him.

"Why did you come here? You should now death is here."

"Matsumoto!"

It was his captain's voice. The kid blocked a certain stab; the blade was covered on ice, and ice wings spread from his back, apparently he was done taking it slow, now he was protecting his vice captain.

"Captain…" Matsumoto mumbled.

Toshiro threw Ichigo back as he stared at Matsumoto.

"You idiot… you should have stayed back there."

Yeah, she knew that, but still she didn't regret coming, not when they might need her… but when has she ever been needed? Maybe it was silly coming back there after all, what was she doing lying there?

She gave a quick glimpse; the whole 9 captains were all around Ichigo, and all of them, but the general commander, were quite injured, while Ichigo himself was completely fine, no cuts, no bleeding, how strong was he really? How did Rukia managed to escape such power? When she tried to feel his spiritual pressure she failed, she didn't feel anything, she could barely take a glimpse of it and she knew that very glimpse was already stronger than any captain.

"How sad…" Ichigo said as his hand reached his head "Coming home to stare at such destruction."

"Don't let him turn into a hollow!" Toshiro shouted out loud as he charged against him.

Not only Toshiro's, but every captains blade were against Ichigo, but he withdrew before those could reach them, and then several hell gates were opened in both sky and land in different spots around the seretei.

"What the hell is he doing?" Toshiro asked.

The captains stared at the gates, and before they could realize they were gone in a glimpse. A white lightening covered everybody's sight and when it disappeared there was nothing. The sky was blue as usual, but there was no one around, but Matsumoto.

"Oh my god…"

Tears filled her face as she extended her hand towards her wound in order to heal it with kidou, yet she didn't stop shedding tears as she realized that there was not even the slightly presence of spiritual energy around. Was she all alone?

* * *

"Why am I not surprised to see you?"

But she was; she was surprised and pleased to see that Tatsuki brought some friends, friends that also remembered everything before the story was changed. Those were Tatsuki's allies, those who would be able to save them.

"Can you help us Yoruichi?" Tatsuki asked.

"Of course." She said cheerfully as she stretched "Ok, so one bankai training, one shunko training and…" she stared at Orihime curious "Well, you have a decent amount of spiritual pressure, but we need to figure it out how to increase it fast and then apply it to your powers."

At difference from Tatsuki and Rukia, Orihime had no soul reapers skills, yet her shin shun rikka were like a zanpaktou, so there might have been a way to grow them stronger. If it was like a zanpaktou, maybe she was the one who would need her guidance the most, as she seemed confused about her own powers.

"Tatsuki, Rukia, I can't watch you all at the same time, so you'll have to train on your own. I'll personally take care of Orihime."

"Miss Yoruichi, although I'm aware of the process to master bankai, I don't have decades, isn't there a way to speed it up like Ichigo did?"

"Way ahead of you." Yoruichi said pointing to a lone corner at some meters away "If you stab that doll your zanpaktou will materialize and then it will teach you how to master bankai. You have only three days, so it's a risk, because if you don't..."

"Got it."

Rukia got there before she could keep talking; she was serious about getting stronger. She smiled, and then she stared at Tatsuki.

"I have to ask you not to overdo like last time, if you feel you are done finish the training, and then rest in the hot spring, we don't want you to die."

"Ok, I'll try."

That covered Tatsuki and Rukia. Now she took Orihime to a lone corner away from Rukia and Tatsuki. Just like any other corner, there were only rocks around and fake blue heaven up ahead. Orihime was still quite amazed in the room, because she haven't been there in a long time and it felt like making a leap to past.

"Show me your powers."

Orihime nodded and then she let her shin shun rikka out. As expected, Tsubaki was the very first one to react.

"Why call us so sudden? There is no battle here! What are you thinking woman?"

_She is so innocent… and yet there is a side of here so willing to fight. _Yoruichi could tell by Orihime's face that she would be hard to train; she had a strong will there was no doubt of it, but she wasn't able to think of killing or harming others. Then an idea came. If Orihime could embrace Tsubaki's feelings towards battle, if she was able to feel him as an extension of her arm, there was no doubt that her powers would grow. But her attack source wasn't the first thing to check yet.

"Byakurai!" Yoruichi screamed.

Orihime didn't even need to say it, the shield was formed and it withstood a very powerful lightning. Yoruichi made that blast especially strong to make sure the shield was good. And it was, yet it needed farther development.

"Attack." Yoruichi commanded.

And there it was; the hesitation, the fear of harming.

"Kotensanshun!"

She even needed to say the name of the technique, unlike with the shield, the attack was weak, and Yoruichi could stop it even before it made contact, just by extending her hand and throwing some spiritual power. Tsubaki was stopped and he looked at Orihime pissed.

"What was all that about?" he shouted out loud.

"I'm sorry." Orihime replied.

But she wasn't, she was relief because it did nothing in Yoruichi. She would have to learn the hard way; she would usually would have tell a person like that not to fight at all, but she knew she would try anyway and she also had to be strong, because they needed as much help as they could have.

"Ok, Orihime call back every single shin sun rikka, but Tsubaki."

Orihime was puzzled by Yoruichi's command, but she obeyed almost immediately. The only missing part in her pin was Tsubaki.

"From now on you'll learn how to fight, you'll learn to stop fearing fights and for that sake you need to focus on Tsubaki, understood?"

"Yes."

"Then let's start."

Yoruichi didn't even think it twice. She came towards Orihime before she could tell and she her on the waist, a mighty blow that made her cough blood. Then she stepped backwards only to kick her face and she sent Orihime against a rock.

"I want you to fight back!"

She was about to start attacking again, but before she managed to start moving again, she was attacked by Tsubaki; the attack itself was might, not might enough to hurt her, but it seemed like Orihime meant to hurt her.

Yet when Orihime stood up she could see that there was no intent of harming in her face, Tsubaki attacked on its own in order to protect Orihime, it was triggered by Orihime's instinct.

Tsubaki was the only killer instinct that Orihime had within her, which proved that she really had to cling into it.

"Don't dare to harm her."

Orihime was surprised by Tsubaki's words. She always thought he despised her; she was moved, because she always cared for him, and she was never sure if he cared for her, after all she only got him injured.

Orihime's eyes had a slight change, they were still filled with doubt, but there was tiny spark of will for battle. Maybe she wasn't a lost case as Yoruichi thought.

"Ok, let's keep going, so far so good."

Yoruichi came to attack Orihime for a second time, but this time Orihime realized and she tried to fight back; the shield covered her from Yoruichi's mighty punch, but it was broken right away, and when she sent Tsubaki towards her, he was again stopped by Yoruichi's hand, with not even a scratch being made. She grabbed Tsubaki and she threw him away as she grabbed Orihime's shirt and she started hitting her face.

"Start taking this seriously!" Yoruichi commanded "Do you think you can help like this! Those who are burden in battle are not those who lack of power! But those who lack of resolve! Is this all your resolve?"

Those words… she heard them before. She remembered how hard everybody fought, they didn't like it, they didn't want to harm people, but they knew they had to. Orihime stopped Yoruichi's fist with her hand, which took an awful blow by doing that, but her eyes started to become firm and filled with will.

She understood that every time Ichigo fought he didn't do it because he liked it, he was merely protecting people, and she had to do the same, even if she had to start hurting others… yet it wasn't easy. The thought of hurting others was something her mind repelled right away.

Orihime made the shield come right away to send Yoruichi backwards as Tsubaki was coming back in order to attack Yoruichi. Orihime tried, really tried to want harming Yoruichi, but she couldn't, and instead she filled her mind with Ichigo's face… she had to protect him… and as she thought that she was able to see Yoruichi as a mean to an end.

Tsubaki was throw a bit backward, but he seemed a bit satisfied; he opened a little cut on Yoruichi's hand.

Orihime stood up and Tsubaki gave her a thumb up.

"You are starting to get it right." Tsubaki said "It's still weak, but keep it that way."

Orihime smiled back as she cleaned her face that was covered in dust. Then she became serious and she stared at Yoruichi as she tried to pull as much spiritual pressure as she could.

"Show me your will to protect." Yoruichi asked.

After all there was hope in her; she would learn to fight and she would develop her powers farther… Yoruichi only hoped that she, Rukia and Tatsuki could develop their powers in time.


	14. Ice Cold Sword

_**A/N: **__It seems that I'm running out of adjectives for chapter titles xD, but worry not they'll keep coming. Don't forget to vote in my profile poll the battle you want to see coming! Sorry if training sequences might be boring you but believe, once it's over; we'll hit really deep plot and bloody battles :). I hope you enjoy._

* * *

**Ice Cold Sword**

_You can't forget me Rukia, I'm your only link. You can't forget who I am, the next thing you'll forget is yourself and then you'll be on their mercy."_It was because of those words that Rukia didn't die that day; it was because of those words that she was now trying to grow stronger. And it was because of that kiss, which never happened, that she was ready to give everything in order to save Ichigo.

Each zanpaktou has each own methodology to prepare a soul reaper to master bankai, all of them equally hard, all of them equally challenging. It required that Rukia grew as much in power as in heart. Her task was to freeze the whole zone she was in, which could have been easy, but every time Rukia's ice touched the floor the ice melt and it became magma; Rukia had been on the quest for several hours and the only thing that prevented she was drawn into the magma as well was that she stabbed her sword on the ground, freezing a square space for her, yet if she couldn't freeze the whole zone she wouldn't develop bankai. The only way, as Sode no Shirayuki said, to freeze the whole zone was if she developed bankai.

Rukia gave a quick glimpse at Sode no Shirayuki, whose eyes were firmly set on her; Sode no Shirayuki knew Rukia could do it, but it Rukia wasn't that sure. She never was a powerful soul reaper, how could that change now?

She drew the blade out of the floor and she jumped on the air to avoid the rising magma around the floor.

"Hakuren."

The wave of ice covered the whole zone, but it was meltdown once again in a matter of seconds. Rukia remained in the air, but then she noticed that a blaze of flames came from the floor in order to attack her. She stopped it with kidou, but then another set of flames followed her, chasing her. Rukia was able to dodge, but she knew dodging would not do any good.

The prospects of her training didn't seem good enough; Yoruichi had left Orihime training on her own to stare for a bit at Rukia and Tatsuki; none of them were advancing fast enough. Rukia was still lost in the way of mastering bankai, her spiritual pressure was increasing minimally, and Tatsuki, who had already developed fairly amount of spiritual energy, wasn't able to control it whole to master shunkou. Every time Tatsuki tried to call the technique forth, the mass of spiritual energy around her body would harm her instead of aiding her; Yoruichi knew that developing shunkou on a corporal body, instead of a spiritual one, was a high risk to take. Tatsuki's powers were like those of soul reapers, which is way she could develop such techniques as hakuda, kidou and shunpo on her own, yet she wasn't dead, and her soul reapers powers couldn't manifest as a living soul. At difference from Ichigo how could jump from his body to his soul reaper form, Tatsuki's powers were still asleep, the only thing she was doing was to take the spiritual pressure on store for them, there was no possible safe way to awake those soul reaper's powers without putting her life in danger, so the best she could do was to develop that spiritual pressure on her living body, even when the risk was damaging the body itself.

None of those girls were on the right path; Tatsuki's body rejected the great mass of spiritual energy, Orihime's will was not strong to replace killer instinct, and Rukia's development was slow. She tried to think of a way to make the process go faster, but there wasn't any in her mind. The training was already a risk, it all depended on those three now.

Rukia had troubles breathing now; the flames reached her body and they were about to consume it, and so Rukia had to take a desperate action; she stabbed Sode no Shirayuki on her waist. There was some blood lost, but the flames dissipated from her body, and then she could stop the bleeding with kidou. It was reckless, because any increase on her spiritual energy would be lost on restoring the wound, yet the most important thing was to save her own life. She took the blade out and the bleeding was minimal, but the exhaustion was not; she had to fight against more flames now, but this time was different from before. There was some passion on Rukia's eyes when she remembered Ichigo, the sorrow behind his eyes, she remembered what she was fighting for and thus she could fight the fire back. This time every single slash of sode no shirayuki was able to freeze the flames that threatened her, her spiritual energy spreading around sode no shirayuki became ice fast enough to freeze the blaze of fire that attacked her.

Yoruichi frowned; Rukia had already developed several techniques and she was now developing a new way to fight, but it wasn't very different from those moves she knew before. Every Rukia technique was called a dance, each dance had different effect, and if it was so, then… Looking at Rukia made Yoruichi realize that she wasn't a brute fighter, she moved with grace, even while slashing her moves were delicate, fast and effective, it was her fighting style, so there was no doubt that her bankai had to be related to that dancing style too, and Rukia was starting to get it as well. It wasn't all about the ice power on her blade, but how she triggered it.

After Rukia slashed the last blaze of flames that were after her she noticed that around the ice some ice petal flowers were formed. And then as she fought against the fire she noticed that there was something different, she was about to learn something, she could feel how the blade was trying to give her wisdom, a new technique was about to be born.

"Yonban mae*" Rukia mumbled.

But before she was about to say the technique name, the flames and the magma from the floor disappeared and Sode no Shirayuki as well. Rukia touched the floor confused as Yoruichi clapped and received her smiling.

"The first day is off." She said "You've grow a bit, you're nearer to make it."

"Please, give me some more time!" Rukia asked "I can still…"

"Regardless, I can't do that." Yoruichi said "You can stab the doll if you want, but it won't do anything until tomorrow, so make sure to take some rest to keep up."

Rukia nodded; she wasn't talkative like Ichigo, she was very stiff and a bit cold, maybe that would explain her abilities.

As Rukia headed towards some rest Yoruichi went to see Tatsuki's progression; she was starting over again.

Tatsuki extended her left arm and a lightning formed by spiritual pressure came by as it started to cover the body, and now she could let it flow around her body as the spiritual energy increased. Then Yoruichi noticed that the lightings were forming a shape on her back, something like wings made of thunder, but it soon came to collapse hurting Tatsuki's back. Tatsuki fell on her knees and coughed some blood as she tried to stand up, but her body was too burnt up. Yoruichi was about to tell her to stop, but the second time Tatsuki actually managed to keep control of the technique for some seconds, the whole spiritual pressure that covered her whole body as a lightning was now covering the whole fist. Tatsuki prepared to release it and she punched a rock. Not only the rock, but anything behind it was utterly destroyed.

The technique faded and Tatsuki seemed to be pleased; she was starting to get it.

"Finallly…" Tatsuki said weakly "I'm getting it right."

"Take some rest." Yoruichi commanded.

She was impressed. She thought Tatsuki would take the longest to train as she was the only one without battle experience, the only one whose powers could overwhelm her powers, but she was actually growing faster than what any human would suppose to. What was up with her? Why didn't she forget about everything too? When she found her, she was nothing but a human with little power, and now, some weeks later, she was a mighty warrior, even while she never had a real fight.

Tatsuki headed for the hot spring now satisfied, and there she met Orihime and Rukia who were already in.

"Yoruichi-san is quite mean." Orihime complained.

"Yeah, but that's why she is good at training us." Rukia replied.

"I know that…" Orihime said before sighing and then smiling "I think all of us will be strong enough to fight soon."

"That's the spirit Orihime!" Tatsuki said as she grabbed her shoulders "We're gonna save them all! And this time everyone is going to kneel towards the great heroines!"

Orihime and Tatsuki had some fun while imagining the idea as Rukia relaxed a heard them out. She was glad to see that those two could be so relaxed, it made all the tension of the environment go away; or almost all of it.

Yoruichi looked at the three of them pleased; she was right… they were the world's last hope.

* * *

*= Yonban mae means "Fourth dance", probably most of you knew already, but just in case =)


	15. Cracked Sword

_**A/N: **__Sorry it took so long, but college has been taking most of my time, so I had barely a chance to write. Anyway, the plot will start moving forward from this chapter on. I hope you keep enjoying =D._

**Cracked sword**

Seven days have passed, and among them the growth of the girls was most impressive. Rukia managed to master bankai on three days as it was supposed, Orihime was now ready to fight and Tatsuki was equipped with new techniques as well.

The last day of training was ending with a three way battle among them, and as soon as they reached their limits the three of them knelt on the floor as they stared each other smiling.

"I think we're ready." Tatsuki said cheerfully

Yoruichi smiled; she was most pleased with the results of training. They weren't at their fullest, they had a long road before mastering their powers, but they improved a lot in the previous week, they were now ready to take on the next challenge, the rest would come with fighting experience.

"Congrats," Yoruichi said while clapping "you made it; I'll be sending you to the Soul Society tomorrow when your spiritual energy is replenished."

"Hell yeah!" Tatsuki said throwing a punch towards the air "Training it's over, now we can end this!"

Orihime and Rukia shared a smiled; Tatsuki's cheerful and optimistic way made everything look possible, they knew she was kind of a spiritual guidance for them.

"There's no use going to the Soul Society."

The first one to turn aside to look was Orihime as she recognized the voice.

"Rangiku-san!" Orihime said happily "You are ok!"

"I'm glad to see you are too." She replied as she stepped towards them "But there is no use going to the Soul Society, its empty."

Rukia's and Yoruichi's face were filled with terror at Rangiku's words.

"What do you mean empty?" Rukia asked as her body paralyzed on panic.

"There was a man fighting against the captains." Rangiku explained "The sky was crimson red, the gates of hell were everywhere, and then… out of the sudden I was left alone in the seretei."

Rukia felt on her knees. Renji, Byakuya, Ukitake, everyone there who she cared about were… gone.

Yoruichi tried to keep a straight face, but her eyebrows showed how concerned she was.

"How was that man like?"

"I know it was a soul reaper… but I can't remember what he looked like…"

"Tatsuki, Orihime, Rukia!" Yoruichi shouted out loud as the three of them stared at her "There'll be a change of plans; I'll be heading to the Soul Society in order to investigate."

"And what are we going to do?" Tatsuki asked "We've trained so hard so that we can do something!"

"I know. That's why you'll be heading to hell."

Tatsuki's face became pale; something about the thought of going towards hell frightened her, she didn't know what, maybe the concept of hell she had, maybe the danger ahead, but she managed to hide it, after all if this was a chance to end it she wouldn't throw all the training to waist, also Ichigo was there.

"Do you think hell is the most appropriated decision?" Rukia asked "We should look where everybody went! And if so we have to start on the Soul Society!"

"That's why I'm going there." Yoruichi replied "And I know that if they all disappeared in thin air, then they might be there."

"Now that you mention it…" Rangiku said "Before everyone disappeared, several hell gates were opened, so I'd bet they are there."

"Ok, this is what we're going to do." Yoruichi said out loud "Matsumoto vice captain will come with me to the Soul Society so that we can check what happened. Tatsuki, Rukia, Orihime, your mission is to find the soul reapers in hell and come back."

"How exactly we'll come back?" Rukia asked.

"Leave that to me." Yoruichi said as she turned aside and walked away "Now go rest, there's nothing you can do today; tomorrow is the day."

* * *

"Thanks for letting me sleepover."

Rukia was staying at Orihime's place, and Tatsuki was there; of course Tatsuki could have gone home, but she rather stay at Orihime's, where the memories of her broken family wouldn't hunt her. It was funny, she wanted to forget so many things and when the chance came to erase memories, she wasn't affected, why? Why didn't she? She didn't understand it, she wouldn't mind to lose some memories, yet she was thankful, she wouldn't have liked to forget Orihime, after all they were always there for each other, and neither would she like to forget about Ichigo. How was he? Was he ok after all this time? She could only hope. As she lay over the mattress of the bed her mind started spinning around the past. While Orihime cooked dinner and Rukia tried to help her, so that they could avoid a gastronomic disaster, Tatsuki was far deep sunk in her past; when she was a girl she wanted to learn karate because she had to learn how to defend herself, nobody in her family would, after all she was alone, and that's why when she saw Orihime so helpless she wanted to help her, she wanted to protect her, because just like she, there was no one to. And since then they were friends; now Tatsuki lived by her own, some money was sent time to time to cover her monthly needs, food, rent, water, everything.

"It's not the first time I've wondered about this." Tatsuki mumbled in low voice "And there is no use doing so."

Indeed, no matter how much she wondered or tried to figure it out, she was unable to see why everything played out the way it did. Lost memories, lost families, lost friends, what else was there to lose?

"Tatsuki-chan! Dinner is ready?"

And just as expected, a bizarre plate of chicken covered in honey and chocolate sauce with rice and brown curry was there to eat, and as always she was afraid of whatever Orihime thought of as a good meal, and wondered if Rukia would have really helped her make it worst. Anyway, she sighed and ate it, after all Orihime was making her best to make everyone pleased in her home.

"I'm glad we had this chance to hang out." Orihime said "After all the true battle starts tomorrow."

"There's a lot to do." Rukia commented "But for now I think the best is to focus on recovering our strength."

"And our spirit too!" Added Orihime cheerfully "You can't win with a sad gaze in your face! You have to go out with all your spirit!"

_That__'s right, we need to believe we can do it or we'll fall. What's done is done, so instead of grieving over my family or anything, I should cheer up. _Tatsuki understood that perfectly and she smiled.

"Well then, we have to get ready to kick some asses!" Tatsuki said cheerfully "There's no stopping us now!"

* * *

The next day they met at the training room on Urahara's shop. Yoruichi had ready what seemed to be the garganta. Rukia noticed and she frowned.

"Why did you open the garganta? We're heading to hell." Rukia complained.

"Soul Reapers can not open the gates of hell, but there is a way to get there by going to Hueco Mundo." Yoruichi explained as she drew out of her pocket some kind of map "Hueco Mundo is infinite so a map may seem useless, but if you follow this track from the moment you go in the garganta, then you should find crack in the endless sand. That crack is a natural gate to hell."

Tatsuki had a quick glimpse on the map; it had very specific instructions, two miles to the north, then five to the west, and so until it reached an X, where the crack would be.

"All right, then I guess this trip will be longer than we thought." Tatsuki commented.

"How will we come back?"

Yoruichi handed Orihime two short ropes.

"When you crossover the garganta throw the first one and when you go throw the crack the second one. Once you're in hell you'll be able to find a ribbon, if you pull it the rope will immediately pull you back to Hueco Mundo, and then you can do the same with the rope in Hueco Mundo."

"Understood." Tatsuki said "Then let's lose no time."

Tatsuki, Rukia and Orihime jumped with no hesitation towards the garganta. Once they all entered, it closed.

Yoruichi smiled as they were left behind and Rangiku stepped forward.

"Are they going to be ok?"

"Of course they'll be." Yoruichi said "Or at least I'd like to believe so."

"So now is our turn to move."

Rangiku opened the senkaimon and both she and Yoruichi crossed it. As Tatsuki's trio was about to sink into fierce battles, the least Yoruichi could do was to support them, to find out what was going on the Soul Society, and if she was right, if her suspicious was right, then she would find Kisuke there.


	16. Bone like Sword

_**A/N: **__Sorry it took so long! College kept me really busy, but I'm back! Hope you enjoy._

* * *

**Bone like Sword**

It was the first time she ever got to know something about Hueco Mundo. Prior to go into the garganta she knew nothing about it; now she could see that there were hollows around the endless sand and a strong light came from the lone moon on the sky, it was a very lonely place, something she strongly felt as the three of them followed Yoruichi's map. It was very easy to get lost considering that there was no other path than the endless end above them, but luckily Rukia had a very good sense of direction and they were sure that they were on the right path.

Tatsuki noticed that Orihime had quite a sad gaze while walking around the sand, like she was feeling nostalgic, maybe homesick, something she could not grasp. Orihime's feelings were caused because she remembered the time when Ulquiorra took her there and the time that Ichigo's company came to rescue her. She looked at Rukia and they shared a strong bonding moment; Rukia remembered the moment she was held imprisoned in the Soul Society, the loneliness, the joy of being rescued and the pain of seeing her friends to get hurt, which was exactly how Orihime felt back then. There were no need for words as they walked along the path, but then the both of them remembered that while being in Hueco Mundo there was someone the never saw again.

"You two seem quite sad." Tatsuki commented "Something the matter?"

There was no time to reply, the three of them avoided a cero that was coming their way.

Orihime was the first one to stand guarded and as soon as she noticed that there was a human shape coming after her with a sword she prepared herself.

"Shiten Koushun."

A pyramid like santen keshun stopped the sword impact and returned a blast that covered the attacker who jumped backwards.

"Such weird powers." Said a female voice.

Tatsuki was impressed at Orihime's tactic and fast reacting; she was happy to see that Orihime was able to defend herself well enough in the battlefield. Rukia drew her sword out and Tatsuki raised her fist, ready to fight. She stared at the woman they were fighting; long green hair, tall, busty, she carried a goat like mask over her forehead, and she was barely covered by some green clothes. She seemed insanely strong, but as long as the three of them stood together there was no way they could lose.

Tatsuki didn't waste her time asking who she was, as soon as she noticed she was about to attack she used shunpo and punched her on the waist. The punch made contact and threw her some inches backwards, but her skin was hard as steel, so Tatsuki shook her hand a little bit feeling some broken bones, but she had no time to completely recover as the enemy was fast as well; before she could dodge she was kicked in the waist and was sent flying backwards.

"Yonban mae." Rukia said while spinning and brandishing Sode no Shirayuki "Keimusho no yuki*"

Tatsuki recovered in mid air and got away from Rukia's range as fast as she could; as soon as Rukia stopped spinning, the wind around her carried thousands of little ice diamond fragments against the enemy. She deflected the fragments when they came against her, but as soon as the sword made contact with the diamonds the shards broke and covered the woman's arm in ice, spreading towards her whole body. It wouldn't take long to break through the ice, but while she tried Orihime also prepared a new attack.

"Koten Keshun!"

The tri force shield was formed around Orihime's left arm to act as a crossbow and Tsubaki acted as the arrow. At the time it was released the power around Tsubaki was enough to break through the ice and also cut a bit through the enemy's arm, and it would reached the chest if it wasn't because she moved too quickly for letting Tsubaki reaching her breast and then she prepared herself to cut Orihime in half, but Tatsuki was faster than her and she grabbed her right arm before the sword could fall and cut Orihime.

"Hadou no Gojuu hachi (58)! Tenran!"

The enemy was thrust backwards due to the tornado that came from Tatsuki's hand, but she recovered fast on midair.

Tatsuki was ready to use shunko and her enemy was probably ready to go to the next level as well, but then Orihime came to realize that they knew each other.

"Nel-san!" Orihime yelled.

Nel looked at Orihime confused; that woman's face change faster than what she could have anticipated, from a serious warrior like face to a sweet naïve look. Tatsuki froze and so Rukia who was already considering entering in bankai.

"Nel-san, you don't remember us, do you?"

"Should I?" she asked confused "Who are you?"

"I'm Orihime Inoue!" she replied cheerfully "I'm the girl Ichigo tried to rescue, remember?"

The high pitch voice from Orihime did sound familiar, and the name ringed some bells, but aside from that she could not be sure. She decided not to let her guard fall, but to hear them.

Rukia also remembered the name Nel, but Nel was a little hollow girl how didn't look anything like the woman before them; of course they both had green hair, the same mask, and there were the same red marks around the nose and below the eyes, but aside from that there was a huge difference, like if the kid grew up twenty years, and she knew such time gap was not possible, not in their current situation.

"Is she truly Nel?" Rukia asked confused.

"I'm lost." Tatsuki complained.

"Sorry Tatsuki-chan." Orihime said while walking towards her "I was held prisoner in Hueco Mundo before Aizen came to the real world, so Kurosaki-kun came here along with Kuchiki-san, Ishida-kun, Abarai-kun and Sado-kun to rescue me and in their way they found a little girl named Nel, but as they went deeper into Las Noches the girl became a woman, apparently because her powers were sealed by…"

"Hey, hey! You are going to fast Orihime! I don't understand a thing!"

The level of details the woman had been too deep, so deep that it surprised her. She couldn't possibly making those stuff up, and there were some names she didn't recognize, but she did know that it wasn't possible for her to know about Las Noches without being there at least once, but then how was it that she seemed to know her? And how did she know about Aizen's fall? After all he was taken down by the hell king, it was an incident that occurred in Hueco Mundo and those girls were humans, excepting Rukia, the soul reaper.

Rukia took a deep look at Nel; she could feel a strong spiritual pressure around her, really big, she definitely didn't use her whole powers while fighting, otherwise it would get ugly. But while seeing her she also noticed that she wasn't like usual hollows, she was more like a warrior; she fought because she had reasons to do so, so probably she attacked them because she had a reason.

"Orihime, I can't make any sense of what you're saying!" Tatsuki complained "Organize your thoughts, for god sake!"

"But Tatsuki-chan… I'm doing my best…" Orihime said with a sad look, she seemed about to break and cry.

"Ok, ok." Tatsuki replied sighing and smiling "The point is that both you and Ichigo know her, right? Then, is she an ally?"

"Of course! She protected Kurosaki-kun and me! She is a friend."

But Nel wasn't so convinced on Orihime's word, how could she trust her? What evidence there was to do so?

"Hey, if you're from here around," Tatsuki said to Nel "then, do you know how to get to the crack."

Nel opened her eyes wide. The crack was the link between hell and Hueco Mundo; it was created by hell's king when he came to Hueco Mundo in order to murder Aizen and since then nobody dared to go there, because the crack would most definitely lead to hell.

"Why do you want to go there?" Nel asked puzzled.

"We're rescuing a friend." Tatsuki announced "Ichigo Kurosaki."

Every time she heard that name a strong feeling shook her, a warm sensation, yet she couldn't understand why, but it was there, she felt it… and she felt like following the desire to meet that man. Yet there was no way to believe those girls, but she could guide them there and find about their true intentions.

"I'll lead you there."

"Thanks, Nel-chan!"

Although Orihime seemed to blindly trust on Nel, both Rukia and Tatsuki were a bit skeptical towards Nel's attitude. She was up to something, and it was understandable, after all she didn't remember as well, so that meant that there was something she was plotting. Whatever it was they were ready to face it, and so they followed her, so that at least they could make sure they were on the right track.

* * *

*= Snow prison.


	17. Ignited Sword

_**A/N: **__Almost two months and no new chapters? Sorry, I needed some time off ='). Now I'm back fully prepared to unleash more surprises and to take the plot to the next level. Tatsuki's party, welcome to hell! Enjoy!_

_P.S: Just like most of you, I haven't seen Bleach fourth movie, just some trailers, so much of hell atmosphere will be my own invention, so if there are some lucky (bastards!) who have already seen the movie, don't get angry at me! I work with the little fair material I have. Now, let's go!_

* * *

**Ignited Sword**

_They are serious… they really want to go to hell… what a crazy bunch of girls. Is this Ichigo so important? _Indeed he was, and she wasn't able to see it, however if she had her memories back then she wouldn't hesitate, she would have even went along with them to hell and sink towards the deepest levels of it in order to save him, but it wasn't the case.

In middle of the endless sand of Hueco Mundo, there was a hole that seemed to be like quicksand, slowly swallowing the whole area into hell, probably it would take the whole Hueco Mundo towards it one day, yet Tatsuki could not care at the time, there was something more important to it, and not even Rukia, who actually knew how bad could it be if Hueco Mundo fused with hell, didn't give a crap to what was going on. Their objective was clear; they had to save Ichigo and everyone else as quickly as they could.

As they stepped towards the quicksand Rukia's heart started to beat faster and faster, after all she was the only one who knew that Ichigo was actually an enemy, how would Tatsuki and Orihime take it once they knew? Was it necessary to tell the truth by this far?

"Don't worry." Tatsuki said as she put her hand on Rukia's shoulder "No matter what happens there we can take it as long as we remain together."

"You are serious." Nel commented "You truly want to go there… you are crazy."

"Who knows?" Tatsuki asked smiling "Maybe we are, maybe we can't do anything, but anyway we have to give it a try, otherwise we would never forgive ourselves."

"That's right!" Orihime added "Kurosaki-kun… no… not just him, but everyone else needs us to! There are people waiting for us, we can't let them down."

"Even if our bodies break, we have to move on." Rukia added "Because life without those people close to us is not good living."

Nel opened her eyes wide just like she had an epiphany; something on those words echoed in her head and she could tell that those girls actually meant what they were saying. There was no reason to fight them, there was no reason to stop them, but also she had no reason to follow them.

"Then go ahead." Nel said "Good luck."

"Thanks, Nel-san." Orihime said staring at her with kindness "I hope your memories get back."

_I don't feel like I've lost anything, however that's how memory lost acts, you can't realize… but I do feel like something is missing. _And so Nel stared at the girls who jumped towards the quicksands, towards hell; she knew they had a firm resolution, but would it last? There was a side of her that actually wanted to go there, to find that thing that was missing, however she did not… at the time.

* * *

"So this is hell."

Rukia's words would have meant more if Tatsuki and Orihime could have fallen on their feet as fancy as Rukia did, but the fall of the quicksand from Hueco Mundo toward hell made Orihime fall on her ass and Tatsuki hit the ground with her head; it was only due to Orihime's santenkesshun that they were still in one piece.

"Hey! Instead of spacing out you could actually help us get up!" Tatsuki complained "I mean the fall actually hurt!"

"I thought you would be able to fall on your feet."

"Not everyone is a trained soul reaper like you, you know?" Tatsuki commented as she got up "I mean, I started training something like a month ago, how many years you were acting as a soul reaper? There is no way to compare that!"

"Oh, so you are acknowledging that out the three of us I'm the most experienced and probably the best suited for acting as the de facto leader of our little group." Rukia said smirking with malevolence.

"You bitch!" Tatsuki replied.

"Tatsuki-chan, Kuchiki-san! It's not time to engage in pointless struggles!"

She was right, and Tatsuki knew it; no matter how much she felt like leading the girls around hell it was actually better to leave that to Rukia, after all she knew a lot more than they about hell, she had more experience and she was really smart. She was the best choice, even if she didn't like being ordered around. So she sighed.

"Ok, Rukia, you can…"

"Great!" Rukia replied as her eyes shone in joy, she was excited "Let's get operation "Heroine Complex" begin."

"Heroine Complex?" Tastuki asked not convinced "Hey! Come up with a better name!"

"Heroine Complex?" Orihime asked amazed "What an amazing name Kuchiki-san! If you can come up with so great titles so easily, you should write novels."

"Ha, ha, you think so? I've actually always wanted to do something like that! And with my amazing drawing skills, I should write light novels! No! Even better! I should create a manga in the Soul Society! There are some really goods ones on Earth and they don't know what they have been missing."

"Amazing Kuchiki-san! I'm waiting for it!"

"Aren't we forgetting why we are here?" Tatsuki asked while sighing "But it's strange, we've been here for a couple of minutes now and there's no one around."

It was indeed strange; the place itself wasn't the pit of fire and flames she imagined in the first place. The sky was filled with yellow clouds, the ground was pure stone, and there was not a single path to lead anywhere, in that way it resemblance a lot Hueco Mundo, however the atmosphere itself as different. While in Hueco Mundo you felt that your soul was slowly being consumed by nothingness, in hell the soul seemed to slowly drive your senses crazy, make you fear a punishment you didn't know when it would fall upon you, it was like the place summoned people's fears in order to drive them crazy. But that didn't slow the girls down.

Although they had no clue where to go they moved forward, they ran along the stone path trying to look for something, anything, that seemed to have some people, hollow, whatever, they just needed to know that there was something alive beside them.

"Take care." Rukia warned "People sent to hell are those who committed unforgivable sins while living, so souls around here are not to trust, we want to find them in order to get a trace of our friends."

"Understood." Orihime said.

"Got it." Tatsuki replied "I'm to speed up, can you follow my lead?"

"You're going too fast already!"

"As expected for someone trained by Yoruichi Shihoun, you can go even faster."

"Ok, ok, I understand, I won't." Tatsuki said cheerfully to Orihime "But try to keep it up to our speed."

"Of course!" Orihime replied.

Soft footsteps were heard. They were very faint, but they were definitely there.

They three of them stopped and prepared for battle as they looked around, but the sounds of the steps weren't like anything they ever heard, it was like…

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

…Like a doll running his way away from danger.

"KON?" Rukia asked shocked.

Of all of the people (or souls) that could be wandering around hell, why the hell him? Also he seemed in a pretty bad shape, a lot of cotton was coming out of his tiny body.

Kon was also shocked by the image in front of him. Three beautiful young women standing in front of him as his savior, and also there was one particular woman that had a beautiful face. He didn't know why, but he jumped towards her and he yelled.

"NEE-CHAN!"

As usual Rukia stopped him with her leg; it wasn't that she wanted to harm him further in his state, it was an old reflect from the old days.

"What the hell is that?" Tatsuki asked surprised.

"Kon!" Rukia said amazed as she grabbed him "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know!" he replied a bit scared "I just happened to wake up here, with no memories of anything whatsoever! And there's… there's this guy…"

"Who?"

"I think that would happen to be me."

Tatsuki, Orihime and Rukia lifted their heads as they watched a man dressed in white with a spiritual bow pointing at them.

"It can't be…" Orihime said shocked.

"Uryuu Ishida?" Tatsuki asked also shocked.


	18. Merciless Sword

_**A/N: **__11 Alerts and 5 Favorites for this story? Plus 3,000 hits? That's awesome! I'm glad you like the direction so far! Let's keep going.  
In by the way, I have been ask by private messages about Rukia's bankai; I have a design for it, but I have the feeling we're not so far to see it in the manga, so I'm trying to delay the moment in which she will use it, however if the times comes when it's necessary for her to show it, I won't wait for the manga and I'll just do it my way._

* * *

**Merciless**** Sword**

"So it seems you know my name." Uryuu said "I expected nothing less from invaders, if you are coming to such place you have to come informed about the people wandering around."

The voice, the shape, the face, even the glasses, it was 100% Uryuu Ishida, however there was something different about him, like if he was a completely different person, yet the keen intellect and the way in which he spoke was the same.

Kon seemed to be really scared of him, like if he was death walking towards them, something Rukia was able to detect by the way his body trembled, like if doomsday arrived.

"This is not the kind of place three beautiful ladies would come to hang around." He said "So, there's gotta be something wrong."

"Ishida-kun…!" Orihime said.

"Don't…!" Kon warned.

But the warning was too late; his face changed, he seemed to be really pissed off.

"Ishida, you said?" he asked "My name is Uryuu, do not dare calling me that."

A blue light bow appeared in his hand, which had the shape of the quincy cross. Orihime gulped as she stared at that man, who was certainly not the one she remembered. She felt a great pain in her heart as Tatsuki covered her; she didn't want to fight him.

"What are you doing here?"

"We came for Ichigo Kurosaki!" Tatsuki replied.

While fear overcame Kon as soon as he heard that name, Uryuu seemed quite surprised, and as he lowered his bow he stared at Tatsuki.

"By Ichigo Kurosaki, do you mean Ichigo the king of hell?"

Tatsuki's, Rukia's and Orihime's eyes opened wide as they heard those last five words. King of hell? Rukia knew Ichigo came from hell to attack the soul society, but… but this? For Orihime the shock was too much and the image of a hollow like Ichigo going in rampage against Ulquiorra crossed her mind, filling it with her deepest fears. As for Tatsuki, she could not understand what the hell was going on; she tried her best to figure out what was going on, but failed, and she started to become stressed, as nothing that happened so far made any sense. It was like her past was different from everybody's past, expect for Rukia and Orihime. It was like… nothing she once remembered was ever real. And what was Ishida there on that matter? Why did his family name bothered him so much? Who else could be around hell? Whatever the answers to all those questions were, she knew it wouldn't change anything, after all her mission was to restore everybody to their normal selves.

Uryuu passed a finger above his nose and fixed his glasses while turning aside and his bow disappeared in mid air.

"Follow me." He said.

Tatsuki began walking and almost immediately Kon warned again.

"Don't follow him! Run away! This guy is death itself!"

"It's ok." Orihime said smiling while following Tatsuki "Ishida-kun is…"

An arrow passed just next to her, but her cheek was opened a cut. Orihime's eyes were trembling as she stared at Uryuu puzzled. Tatsuki immediately took a defensive stance next to Orihime and filled her fist with her spiritual pressure.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?" Tatsuki asked.

"It's a warning." He said "If you ever call me Ishida again you'll be slain, however if you call me Uryuu you have nothing to fear. Believe, if I wanted to kill that woman, that arrow would have already pierced her skull."

The way he expressed himself was similar, but the coldness of his voice made his aura feel different. Orihime was able to detect that and she almost wanted to start crying, but soon she felt Rukia's hand on her shoulder and it eased her a little bit.

"He is someone different." Rukia muttered "Once he gains his memory back, he'll be the Uryuu we all remember. So, just play along for now, even if it is hard, because it may be the only way to get to Ichigo."

Orihime nodded, while sorrow covered her whole body. It was so unfair! Uryuu Ishida was one of the few people she knew she could count out no matter what, she knew deep down that he was the kind of guy who would have gladly died to protect her, and now… he seemed to be a cold, calculator, cruel man.

Kon wanted to run away from there; the whole situation was so messed up, and those girls may be the only hope he ever had to survive, but now they were following Uryuu, a man who was merciless and who killed whoever was in their way. Uryuu was taking those ladies somewhere because he was plotting something, he was always one step ahead of everyone and once he is done with you, once he knows you will serve no purpose to him, he would kill you, and it wasn't the hell way of killing and then reborn to be killed once again, he would erase souls, he had the power to destroy them and send them to nothing. He was a destructor, a quincy, reigning in the hell kingdom with fear. And there was only one man ahead of him, a man who even he bowed to. The king of hell; Ichigo.

"You seem lost, so I'm assuming you came here with no knowledge of hell whatsoever." Uryuu said "But then again you knew my name, it is strange for a group of people who come to an unknown place to gather just information about the people and not about the place."

No one replied, as they didn't know how. The place was very monotonous, and the stone path became more like a sand path now, it was like a large desert.

"Hell is not just sand and yellow clouds." Uryuu said as they kept walking "Hell is immensely divided in almost infinite zones, reflecting people's worst nightmares and fears, we will soon reach a door, which leads to a staircase in a room filled with skeletons. The room itself is dark and is poorly illuminated by candles; at that place we can reach the following zone."

"Which zone is Ichigo on?" Tatsuki asked.

"Who knows?" Uryuu replied "As the kind of hell he can be wherever he likes, as I said before hell is infinite, there are some areas that are more commonly populated than others, which are wandered by souls who doesn't know where to go, but to search for Ichigo is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Then, who are we supposed to find him?" Orihime asked.

"Leave that to me." Uryuu replied with a faint smile "Unlike most souls here which have lost the will to fight and discarded their powers, I still can trace him with my power; Ichigo's spiritual pressure is quite different from anyone's, there is no mistake once I find him, he is the one."

"You seem quite confident." Tatsuki said.

"That's because his spiritual pressure is in my body."

The girls suddenly stopped at hearing those last words and Uryuu turned around as he revealed a scar in his shoulder. It was so deep that they were impressed that Uryuu didn't lose his whole arm by being inflicted that wound.

"I'm the only man who has faced the king and survive." Uryuu said "Since then it seems I have gained a position in hell, one in which everybody fears me, like that stuffed animal the soul reaper is carrying."

"My name is not soul reaper." Rukia replied "It's Rukia Kuchiki."

Uryuu stared at Rukia; that name was familiar to him, although he didn't understand why. He immeately asked for Tatsuki's and Orihime's name.

"Tatsuki Arisawa." She said calmly.

"I'm Orihime Inoue." She said a bit sad.

_Orihime Inoue_… that name echoed in his mind more than any other; it was a beautiful name that seemed to fill a little bit the emptiness he hid inside his heart. But he didn't let those feelings carry them away; he spotted a red wooden door standing in the middle of the desert and he kept walking towards it.

"How did you end up in hell anyway?" Tatsuki asked.

"I'm not like those souls wandering around because of their sins." Uryuu said "However, I have no intention on telling strangers the reason of staying here."

"I think he wants to take over Ichigo's kingdom…" Kon whispered.

Uryuu heard it and he laughed. Kon was so scared that he grabbed on Rukia's kimono as hard as he could, and Rukia was able to feel the degree of desperation Kon had fallen to.

"To take over Ichigo's kingdom?" Uryuu asked "It sounds like fun, so I won't either confirm it or deny it."

_Just as Kuchiki-san said… this man is not Ishida… _but he looked like him, and he talked like him, which made it so hard to believe it. It was so hard for Orihime to look at him, knowing all what they have been through together to… to be just like it never ever happened.

"Stop!" Uryuu commanded.

They all halted at the same time, although they didn't know why, they couldn't fell anything.

A light blue arrow in a shape of a sword crossed among them and it clashed against something behind them. They turned around and they found out that there was a cloaked creature, which mask had just been shattered. When it took the black cloak off they noticed that it was a guy too slender and with blade shaped arm that came against them.

Tatsuki was the first to hit; she used flash step and then she punched him on the waist sending him backwards. Orihime and Rukia were ready to support if it was needed, but Tatsuki was too fast for that man's blade shaped arms to catch, and so Tatsuki filled her fist with kidou to make a finishing blow, however she didn't deliver it. Uryuu appeared at that man's back and he slashed him with a blue light blade and his body started disappearing in mid air.

Tatsuki stared at Uryuu with wide opened eyes.

"Thanks, but I had it under…"

"If you kill him with kidou, zanpaktou or anything of that kind he will be reborn in hell." Uryuu explained "Of course that counts for me too, after all how can you kill someone who is already dead? There is one answer; erase him."

The answer was so cold blooded that it made everybody, even Rukia, flinch.

"Unlike soul reapers and standards souls of the soul society, who die and then are reborn in the human world, and unlike hollow killed by zanpaktous who are either sent to soul society or here to hell, once you are in hell there is no other place to go. If you die, you are to be reborn once again here, there's no escape; it's an eternal punishment for all those who committed horrible sins in life, so instead of killing them to then fighting them all over again, I rather erase them. Quincy's have the power to do it or not, there is a moment in which we can choose which path to take, either serve like living soul reapers, or become real destroyers. You have already seen which path I took."

_This is not like Uryuu at all… he would never do something so… _Orihime had no words to describe the horror of which she just witnessed; that person was…

"Let's hurry." Uryuu said "If you want to meet Ichigo, we're not going to do it here."


	19. Slayer Sword

_**A/N**: Sorry about the delay, but I was struck by author block for a while and I needed a break. Character development and a bit of plot at the end, we finally see Rangiku and Yoruichi again. Yay =D! Enjoy!  
_

* * *

**Slayer Sword**

It was a long day, and being in hell didn't make their needs any different.

Uryuu led them towards what could be called 'a safe house', although the very fact that Uryuu was with them made it dangerous, or so Kon pointed out.

The place like was an old Japanese house, which was near by a river that lead towards another hell zone and the sky was crimson red all the time, and if it ever rained, it rained blood, so no one wanted to go out of the house, which was protected by a barrier set by Uryuu's five seele schnieders, one that none but Ichigo himself could destroy.

The house was divided in many rooms, with slide rooms and the walls had the quincy cross as design. Orihime, Rukia and Tatsuki shared a room in order to be safe, and Kon begged them so much to let them sleep there that they accepted. At first Rukia wasn't going to, but when she saw that it wasn't one of his perverts' reasons, but actual fear for Uryuu, she just couldn't refuse.

Uryuu told them that he had been so long in hell that he was able to create this space for him, and he had came here around a year ago with a mission to fulfill, and so he came prepared, with grocery to stay as long as needed and all kind of tools that could come in handy, including a netting kit, which he used to fix Kon by Orihime's request.

"He's another person…" Orihime mumbled.

The sense of time was awful, there was no way to tell if it was night or day, they could just relay in how tired they were.

"I never really talked to him, but I don't think he's that kind of guy." Tatsuki added.

"Uryuu would never say it, but he was a very good friend of Ichigo." Rukia commented "And he also came to rescue me…"

"How so?" Tatsuki asked.

"I've told you about the time I was held prisoner in the soul society." Rukia smiled.

"Yeah, you told me Ichigo and Orihime helped you out, but you never said anything about Uryuu."

"Uryuu, Sado, Orihime, Yoruichi and Ichigo… they all came for me… and they also changed the soul society."

"And you can tell this is not the man who rescued you." Tatsuki concluded.

"That's right." Rukia said "He is not like this."

"What are the three of you talking abut?" Kon asked confused as hell "Ichigo rescuing you? Uryuu? Sado? It makes no sense, none of them would have gone into the soul society, plus how come Uryuu doesn't remember you then?"

"Sado-kun is here as well?" Orihime jumped as she asked.

"Yasatura Sado…" Kon mumbled "he is Ichigo's right and left hand."

"Sounds like it." Tatsuki said "Back on Earth they tagged along fine."

"I don't understand a word you say." Kon complained "Back on Earth, rescuing… just who are you? Do you come from an alternate universe or something like that?"

"Something like that." Orihime replied smiling "Everyone is so different… even you Kon, you are not like this."

"And what do you possibly know about me?"

"I know that by now you should have already been beaten up twice for trying to peek on our lady parts." Rukia said.

"With my life at stake, could I care now?"

_Even Kon is so different… what the hell is going on here? I had no memories for a while, so I should be able to understand how everyone sees this world, but since I recovered my memories I also lost the link to those connections of the world without Ichigo… _Rukia used to think too hard on things, at times she got lost on her own thoughts and nobody could snap her out of it.

Tatsuki rubbed Orihime's face, which was just about to break on crying.

"We'll get everybody back." Tatsuki assured smiling "We got Rukia back; at first she didn't remember anything, but eventually she got her memory back."

_Yeah… but Tatsuki-chan doesn't know all what I've caused, she doesn't know that I was the one who messed up everybody's memories. _The burdens of her actions were very heavy, almost unbearable… but then again, how come Tatsuki never lost her memory? And as she started recalling no one beside her knew who she was, not even Ulquiorra was able to remember her name, even though he recognized her scent, but no one really remembered her, was it because she crossed purgatory? Or could it be something worse like… that she never ever existed in everybody's life in the first place? The possibility scared her, to even consider not being remembered by anyone aside Rukia and Tatsuki, but maybe it was her punishment for re-writing history, but wasn't enough to see Uryuu like he was? Wasn't it to have a depressed Kon and Ichigo as king of hell? Hell itself wasn't much of a deal for her; the true hell was inside her heart.

Tatsuki was able to tell that Rukia and Orihime had a lot on their minds, but all she could do was to keep her optimistic attitude, hiding her own fears. She didn't understand why she was the only one who was never affected by the brain wash, why she remembered every single detail of life as it used to be, and she also thought she wasn't very useful for that matter; she barely knew about Ichigo's days as a soul reaper, she only had what other told her, but she didn't want to depend on that, all that she could use was the times she saw him fighting in the black kimono, and something even more important… she held to the memories of being childhood friends, of sharing a lot of experiences, pain and joy together. How could he be the king of hell? There was no way! And the memories were the only thing that allowed her to move forward, however memories were fragile, and so she was scared that the next day she would wake up without knowing what she was doing there. _If it happens, I can't do anything about it, just like dieing. _Not a very comforting thought, but it got her through the night.

* * *

"The soul society is really empty."

Rangiku and Yoruichi had searched along the whole seretei for a single shinigami, but there was none. There were only the endless paths around the court, the immense blue sky and the rukongan, in which souls still lived as always, just without the presence of any soul reapers, but them. This bothered both Rangiku and Yoruichi, not to mention how much they were concerned.

"It's impossible for two soul reapers to take over every single hollow, plus sending souls to the soul society, no matter how strong they are." Yoruichi commented "If we don't bring them back soon I'm afraid that judgment day will fall not only in the real world, but in the soul society, hueco mundo and hell as well."

"Every existence will fall into oblivion, like if there was never life in the first place." Rangiku added "I'm not very good with this kind of serious matters, but we must act."

"We won't have much time." Yoruichi declared "If Tatsuki's party managed to get into hell, they may be able to bring a few soul reapers back, lead them to an escape route, however we can't count on it, and we have to act as well. Rangiku, we have no time to lose, I'll head to Earth and kill as many hollows as I can in the whole world, trying to buy Tatsuki's party more time."

"I'm going with you."

"No." Yoruichi replied "You need to stay here and search for this."

Yoruichi handed Rangiku a piece of paper, which seemed to be some kind of letter. Once she read what was in it and saw a piece of tech on it, her eyes wide opened and she stared at Yoruichi speechless.

"We might be able to find Kisuke with that. It might be our only chance."

"But… the Hogyoku lies…"

"Yeah, I know; as you remember it the Hogyoku was lost in Hueco Mundo after king of hell Ichigo murdered him, however that's not the true case. If I'm correct, the hogyoku should be there and _that person _is holding it."


	20. Fallen Sword

**Fallen Sword**

"I really don't understand your motives."

The girls left the place after a good night sleep, which didn't come easy, but once they managed to sleep through the night they became a little more relaxed, plus they restored any single bit of spiritual pressure used in previous battles. Their powers were top up, so that was a comforting thought, unlike having to travel through hell following Uryuu.

He walked towards the river and he dived in, and so the girls- plus Kon- also dived into the water, and as they did they realized that they could breathe underwater, and as they swam, following Uryuu's lead, they started to catch a crimson glimpse at the bottom of the river, which soon became a glitter that covered their whole sight. Once they opened their eyes, they noticed that they were falling from a crimson sky towards a place filled with pale blue buildings, and around them there were huge monster like skeleton covered in meat around their extremities, wielding shields and swords, with their skulls staring at each of them, and their arms covered in what seemed to be a protective armor for the shoulders.

"This is one of hell's most dangerous zone and the only way to reach the king!" Uryuu announced as everyone fell into blue platforms beside the great amount of building "If you get trapped by those guys and then ate you can never leave hell!"

Orihime was the one who felt fear the worst, pushing her legs to the fullest in order to escape from those hell monster that were following them; she was the one who got carried away with fear, however Tatsuki was as scared as her, or even more, this world was after all awful, something she was not prepared to handle, and the only reason why she was able to keep it together was because she knew freaking out would make no good, still her heart beat with might as she sped up to keep with Uryuu's pace. Feeling that you were followed was an awful sensation, especially when one of the monsters came across a right path, destroying a great amount of buildings to come into the party in a surprising dash as it reached its hand towards Orihime.

"Shiten Koushun!" Orihime yelled as she repelled the hand and forced the monster to back down due to the explosion that covered that monster's arm.

"Bakudo no rokujuu ichi (61)" Rukia said trying to keep her cool "Rikujou korou!"

The binding demon magic was a real challenge for Rukia, because it was the first time she made a multiple cast, targeting at least eight of the monster that followed them. They would be set free soon, casting a bakudo in multiple targets wasn't very usual among soul reapers, so Rukia decided to give it a lucky shoot and succeeded, but it both consumed a good amount of her spiritual energy and it wouldn't last as much as a single tagert.

"What are you doing Rukia?" Tatsuki asked "You cast that bakudo in eight enemies! You could have asked me to help you with that!"

"Sorry…"

"Don't waste your spiritual energy so fast!"

"I'm ok, this is barely a tenth of my strength."

"But…!"

"Stop complaining, for god sake!" Uryuu interrupted "Rukia made it easier for us to keep onwards! Let's leave it at that and don't let your guard down! There are more guardians than these guys."

"I hate hell!" Orihime yelled "I HATE IT!"

"Well, that's the idea of an eternal punishment for the souls that have sinned." Uryuu replied as if he was stating the obvious.

Orihime almost couldn't stand this new version of Uryuu, and the only thing that stopped her from calling him out was that soon a new white glimmer covered their sight as they arrived towards a new hell zone.

They were standing in what seemed to be a white coliseum pillars around a deep pit in front of them, and behind them there was a cliff leading to a deep sea covered in what seemed to floating giant white petals.

"This zone doesn't look like much hell." Tatsuki commented.

"For now." Uryuu commented "Don't let the appearance of this zone fool you, this is probably the most infamous zone in the whole hell, but then again it's just what I have seen as far."

"Why is it so bad, then?" Rukia asked.

"This zone deceives those who come in here." Uryuu said "It catches your soul's greatest memories and then it modifies them. If you fall in the water behind us you will immediately start feeling the effect of the memory being modified, it will change your greatest memories into your greatest nightmares."

"Changing memories?" Tatsuki asked right away.

She, Rukia and Orihime shared a concerned look, considering the same thing. Someone manipulated the water of that sea and used it so that they could change everybody's memories. Still, even if they figured out how they changed everything, when and how was it played it out? And how come Tatsuki wasn't affected? Why time stopped and she could keep moving? Whatever that happened was beyond the surface of what they have learnt so far, but they were getting closer.

"Yes." Uryuu replied breaking the girls train of thoughts "What are you assuming?"

"Uryuu." Orihime said impatiently "You…"

"… You have nothing to do with this." Rukia interjected.

Orihime was glaring at Rukia; she wanted to tell Uryuu everything, every little detail of what happened, and then she came to interject with that comment. Uryuu wiped his glasses a little and then he stared at Rukia with a serious, analyzing look in his blue eyes.

"Since we arrived in hell you have gave us your assistance, but you never said why." Rukia said while drawing her sword out "You have told us as much as hell as you seem to know, however if what Kon says is right then you are not just doing this as an act of kindness, but as a mean to an end. I demand to know what it is."

"Let me answer your question with another question." Uryuu replied tranquil "Why are you seeking for Ichigo?"

There was a brief silence and before any of the girls could answer, Uryuu spoke up again.

"You just hesitated about telling me." He said "I can't blame you; you must have your own reasons, just as I do, so what if we just keep our mouths shut and keep as before? You can save the blade for later Rukia, I'm not planning on back stabbing you…"

"… yet…" Kon mumbled.

"Stop it." Orihime muttered in pain.

"You need guidance as you know nothing of hell, if I'm not guiding you then there's nothing you can do here, besides why would I want to harm you? We have never met before…"

"STOP IT!" Orihime yelled out loud.

Tatsuki realized that it was more than what she could withstand, and until then she never realized how close she used to be to Uryuu. She loved her friend… or was it even more? She knew she used to be deeply in love with Ichigo, but could have something changed? Orihime went to places where she never stepped in, she was already set in a world she didn't know until recently. There was little she could do to help.

Rukia sighed; she also knew Orihime was having a rough time, however she did expect she could be able to keep it together in order to keep their search for Ichigo as a main priority, and now it seemed like their hell guide was about to become an enemy, and as such she took a defensive stance, just in case.

"You're not Uryuu!" Orihime said as she stepped towards him "The real Uryuu Ishida would never say such cold hearted things."

"And how come you know anything about him?" Uryuu asked "We have never met…"

"YES WE HAVE!" Orihime's yell made him give two steps backwards "Stop this nonsense! Try to regain your memory!"

"My memory is…"

"It's not fine!" Orihime replied as she started bursting into tears "Nothing is… All the people I care about are in peril because of me… it wasn't enough to drag Tatsuki and Rukia to hell with me, but now I get to see you like that…"

It was one of the few times she addressed Rukia by her first name and called Tatsuki without the 'chan' that showed affection. Also she stopped the flow of tears as she grabbed Uryuu's shoulder with might.

"Take us to Ichigo." She ordered with cold voice "Now, no more detours, no more comments, take us there, NOW!"

_I have never seen Orihime so pissed… I have never seen her stand in her ground like that. She must be really pissed with all this. _Tatsuki was usually the kind of person who called people out like Orihime just did, the one who set things right, and seeing Orihime able to talk so coldly made her chill, especially when she said 'Ichigo' instead of 'Kurosaki-kun'.

Rukia was shocked, and she could notice that Uryuu did not see that coming. She stored her blade as she kept an eye on Uryuu who seemed to faintly smile.

"I thought you were just a sweet heart bimbo. Apparently I have misjudged you." Uryuu commented as he lead them towards the pit "We have to go through the pit, but it's not as simple as it seems, soon we'll be in a dark zone, so you better join your hands or you will get lost."

Tatsuki grabbed Rukia's and Orihime's hand as the double, just as Uryuu grabbed Orihime's left hand and stared her with what seem a look filled with a little bit of lust. Tatsuki felt like beating the crap out of him, still she knew it wasn't time for that.

They all made a leap forward and as they fell in the pit and embraced the darkness that covered their sight, Orihime was able to faintly feel a scent.

"U… Ulquiora…"


	21. Towards The Last Bad Dream

**Towards The Last Bad Dream**

The next zone was really terrifying, not because of the bone like that covered the floor, but because of the immense darkness of the moonless sky. The only thing that covered that hell zone with light was the mere light coming from very faint candles all around the zone; it was very difficult to see something around that place, everything seemed to be filled with darkness, and the bones that made the path they were walking on seemed to be about to break at any second, and if it did they would be most likely consumed in the darkness that surrounded the zone.

Uryuu's bow acted as light bringer in the zone and illuminated much of the way they were crossing. He didn't say anything, after Orihime stood her ground he decided not to mess with that girl anymore, if he could he would avoid talking with any of those three crazy bitches, after all what they were after was completely insane.

That zone affected Tatsuki particularly, and it wasn't that she was afraid of darkness, but it brought her a distant memory from the past.

"_Mommy, mommy!" Tatsuki said; she was almost barely a kid then._

"_Tell me, sweetheart." Her mother replied._

"_I just had an awful dream! You and daddy were walking around a very dark place! You were screaming my name, but I couldn't reach you… and the floor was made of bone, it collapsed and then you were lost in the darkness!"_

"_Calm down, Tatsuki-chan, my dear." Her mother said "It's alright… it was just a bad dream."_

"Tatsuki-chan?"

Orihime's voice made her come back to reality. She smiled, pretending to be fine, while the zone actually triggered those childish fears, and as she kept walking the fear was nearer to overcome her, how could she have dreamt about a hell zone in her childhood?

"I'm fine." Tatsuki lied with an unconvincing smile "Let's keep moving."

Orihime could tell Tatsuki wasn't fine, but her mind was also somewhere else at the time and she couldn't take much attention to Tatsuki's fear; she was thinking about Ulquiorra's scent, she felt it, and she wanted to meet him, to be able to fulfill that promise she made her… she told him that the next time they found each other, she would be her heart. Then she snapped, and realized that while thinking about wouldn't bring Ulquiorra to her, she could actually help Tatsuki with whatever that was in her mind.

"It's not good to keep things from us." Rukia said first "You can tell us what is going on." There was a brief silent and then she looked at Orihime "That goes for you too."

Orihime turned her head towards Rukia, a bit shocked for that comment, yet she smiled, because she could tell Rukia cared for her. Even when Ulquiorra, Ichigo, and Uryuu-who she saw as a total different person- weren't around, she still had two gals for her, two friends that were like sisters.

"You shouldn't let your guard down." Kon warned "Danger is all around here."

Indeed, and they would learn that soon. As the words fall describing what happen to these three girls, the darkness was most likely to consume any kind of light around, including Uryuu's bow.

"Damn it!" Uryuu cursed "As we reach the zone's end it's easier for the light to get consumed by darkness! So don't get lost! Keep track of our spiritual pressure and, if you are afraid of getting lost anyway, join your hands!"

Uryuu's hand joined Orihime's, which surprised her as she felt in that touch something she thought lost in the man before her; kindness. He was being gentle as he touched her. Tatsuki held both Orihime's and Rukia's hand as Kon grabbed Rukia's arm with might.

Soon they fell in true darkness and nothing could be seen, everything was reduced to nothing but pitch black, as they felt how some of the bones crumbled, and so Tatsuki made a silent groan; nobody could hear it, it was almost like a scream, it was reviving her childhood's memory.

"_Dad? What are you doing? DAD?"_

"_TATSUKI! RUN!"_

Tatsuki's eyes were filled with tears, and a very silent cry that wasn't heard by anyone. Her heart beat fast as she remembered even more horrendous events of her past, events that eventually made her live on her own. This zone was bringing all that back, it was like a torture.

"_Please, please, stop it!" She said while crying "Dad… what are you doing to mom?"_

_And then the gun shoots._

This time Tatsuki couldn't keep it together; she finally allowed her groan escape the silent tone and it was faintly heard by Orihime and Rukia as their hands felt something like rain drops falling in them; tears.

"Tatsuki?" Rukia asked concerned "Are you ok."

She was about to talk, but she acted. She took Rukia and Orihime and jumped to the right as she heard something hissing in the wind. Uryuu was fast and he drew a Seele Schneider, which brought the light that his bow could not bring any longer. The light illuminated a pair of bat wings that Orihime recognized right away.

"Ulquiorra…" she said faintly.

Uryuu's blade shaped weapon illuminated every single faction of that body, which camouflaged almost perfect in the darkness of the night, the legs, the arms, the wings, and most of his body was nothing but black, and only his green eyes were able to produce a glimmer that made him a little bit visible in the dark.

"How do you know my name woman?"

"No…" Orihime said both saddened and pissed "Not you too…"

She grabbed her hair pins and she held them in her hands with might; she knew he might come against them as enemies, and he was already at full force. No, she wouldn't let the past repite, this time she was stronger, this time she would be able to save him no matter what.

"Tatsuki, Rukia, this is personal."

Both Tatsuki and Rukia could tell that by the very moment she pronounced nothing but their names without the affective "chan" or the respectful "san". She was dead serious, dead pissed, and really, really sad.

"Orihime…"

"I'll be fine." Orihime said "Let me handle him, you go for Ichigo."

But Tatsuki didn't hear her, she just stepped forward and, when she saw Ulquiorra coming against Orihime, she hit him. The impact didn't really harm him at all; it merely made him step backwards.

"You posses iron fists, Tatsuki Arisawa."

Now she didn't expect for him to know her name. Orihime was about to tell Tatsuki to leave her deal with it, but by hearing Ulquiorra mention Tatsuki's name she grew curious and scared.

"How did you…?"

"You are the only one that withstood the judgment."

"Judgment?"

"TATSUKI-CHAN!"

It was a matter of splits seconds; Orihime pulled Tatsuki backwards and she protected them both from a cero oscuras with her Shiten Koushun. The defense was merely able to repel the blast and counter attack. Ulquiorra's arm was harmed by the back fire of Orihime's defense as she threw Tatsuki backwards. She knew her friend could deal with Ulquiorra, she knew that together it would be even easier to bring him down, but she didn't want that. She gave a dead away look towards her friends, and in a moment of weakness she left her old self come back and the tears fell. She wanted to be strong like everyone around her, but inside she was very fragile; however it didn't change her resolution.

Rukia was able to see all that through Orihime's eyes, and although she shared Tatsuki's concern for her, she realized there was something more precious in stake; Orihime's pride.

So Rukia grabbed Tatsuki and forced her to run away.

"Hey!" Tatsuki complained "Orihime needs us! We are a team!"

"This is Inoue's battle." Rukia replied "Didn't you look at her eyes? This battle is more than a regular fight; there are more things at stake."

"What if she gets hurt?" Tatsuki yelled "WHAT IF SHE DIES?"

Uryuu, who remained silent for the whole scene, suddenly stopped and he pointed the way out for Rukia and Tatsuki.

"That way you should find Ichigo." He said as he stared at Orihime and Ulquiorra, who were starting to succumb in the darkness "I'll be here for Orihime, if things get ugly, I'll help her."

"How can I trust you that?" Tatsuki asked.

And for one second she thought she saw through the glasses, through the eyes; the real Uryuu Ishida, the one who actually cared for Orihime. Or was she thinking to see it? Did she just wanted an excuse to leave Orihime alone? Just thinking about it made her sick, and she no longer knew what was the best thing to do.

"Don't be selfish."

Those were Rukia's words as she forced her to keep running, and Tatsuki noticed that tears fell from her face; she didn't want to leave her alone at all.

"Orihime entrusted Ichigo to us!" Rukia said with a bit of broken voice "We can't fail!"

And so they left; Tatsuki was only able to move forward after seeing Rukia's tears, after realizing how much important Orihime was for her as well.

"DON'T DIE ORIHIME!" Tatsuki yelled "COME BACK WITH US WHEN YOU'RE DONE!"

And so they kept their track to the end of that dark zone.


	22. Dark Sword

**Dark Sword**

It wasn't easy for her to face him; it had been such a long time since they had met each other. He was a terrifying man, the man who kept the hogyoku after Aizen was murdered by Ichigo, and now Rangiku was staring at the face of such devil. She was staring at Gin Ichimaru. Of course, they had met before, they were very close while they were little, however he was something different now. If he was mysterious now he was a complete enigma. He held the hogyoku and he surrendered to the soul society, and so he was confined in the chamber of 46, while the hogyoku remained at his chest. He never meant to escape, he didn't seem to be waiting for something to happen, whatever he sought it was very well hidden behind his eyes and not even she could see it. That was all that Yoruichi told her, and it was a secret beneath the whole Soul Society, no soul reaper knew about it; the world was a crazy place now.

"Rangiku, is that you?" Gin asked.

"Yes…" she said with hesitation "The soul society is empty."

"I know."

"And yet…"

"Yet I'm here…" Gin replied before she could say anything "It must be very disturbing for you… to see me like this."

It was; he was the same man physically, but his face was even more frightening than it was ever, his eyes shone with a faint, but clear, crimson glow while the hogyoku, still attached to his chest, seemed to glimmer as Gin stared at Rangiku. She was scared of that man, because it was no longer the same man she used to know, and because deep down in her soul she thought he had been dead. Of course, he never died- in the timeline in which Ichigo is king of hell-, but somehow she knew he had, and even though she did not wish for it, she was conscious that that man didn't belong in the world of the living or the dead; he just had… vanished…

"You seem really upset about something." He said "Are you that scared of me now?"

"I just don't understand you…" She said.

"What you don't understand is why I am alive."

Rangiku opened her eyes wide; he knew it too, he was also as confused as her, she could tell at much, but the difference was that he wasn't as much shocked or concerned as she was, he was… tranquil, as he was staring at the end and beginning of times.

"You shouldn't worry that much." Gin said "The timeline has been rewritten, there are people who never existed that now exist, and people who existed that have now vanished."

She remembered what Orihime said to her a few days ago in her house: '_I burnt off the script! I destroyed destiny… and now future is but uncertain for us… Rangiku! I think I'll be the reason of why we're all going to die!' _Was Ichimaru referring about that? Did he know that that girl, somehow, changed the course of the events? And did that mean that everyone's life was in peril?

"It's usual that you don't remember." Gin said "After all, all that once happened never occurred, yet there is a mark in some souls that can't be erased, those who have been marked will come to remember the original timeline, those will lead towards the brave new world, and those who don't will fall in the jaws of the chaos sea."

Rangiku wanted to reply, but she couldn't, she could barely mumble some sounds before being able to reply.

"Why…how do you know all this?"

"When I died I went straight to purgatory instead of being reborn in the real world." Gin explained calmly "And there, there were these people who wanted to change the timeline, a red haired girl, tall, big breasts, with an innocent and naïve face. She led the change of the timeline."

Rangiku gulped as she tried to come to accept that; did Orihime Inoue really change reality as they knew it? And if she did… why did her friend Tatsuki still remembered everything?

* * *

"It's been a while, Ulquiorra."

Orihime knew that he didn't remember her, just like Uryuu didn't, but that didn't matter, because she knew that deep down their love was still imprinted in his soul. However, he seemed ready to kill her, he didn't even say a single word, which was a proof that he had no hesitation in what he was about to do. He had the upper hand in the dark zone as he was almost mostly blacked fur, so he just raised his fingers and Orihime could tell what he would do; he was about to launch a cero oscuras so she couldn't tell where it was coming from, but she called forth her standard santen kesshun and once the cero impacted the shield, it withstood the blast as it was a mere punch against it.

"Strong defense." Ulquiorra mumbled.

Orihime was able to perceive the fast movement he made and she reacted with a shiten koushon. Ulquiorra, who meant to attack her with one of his black wings was forced to step backwards as he suffered from the back fire after the wing crashed against the pyramid like shield.

"Quick reactions, low speed and heavy defense with backfire." He whispered "You are not an ordinary human, what are you?"

"You already know that." Orihime replied as she grabbed her hair pins with mighty strength "And if I have to beat you to remember I will."

She knew she wasn't as fast as Ulquiorra, that he had an upper hand in the darkness and that he had a high speed regeneration that recovered his right wing quickly. It was more likely for him to win, but it wasn't a matter of winning or losing, it was about opening his eyes.

Orihime called forth Tsubaki and used a standard Koten Sanshun, which illuminated through the darkness with heavily light as it chased Ulquiorra with great speed. Even though Orihime could not move very fast, her shun shun rikka could and so Tsubaki became fast enough to chase Ulquiorra who decided to stand in guard in order to understand the woman's power, however he quickly changed tactics after a few seconds and he shot a cero oscuras towards the fairy like creature; Tsubaki managed to evade and the cero headed towards Orihime who called forth one more time the Santen Keshun, however that was a bad choice, because almost immediately after repelling the blast, Ulquiorra slipped through her perception and got to her back. He punched her in the cheek and before she could fly backwards by the strength of the hit, he used his tail to wrap her neck. Tsubaki was about to act, but Orihime stopped him as she called the Souten Kisshun. Both her and Ulquiorra were embraced by a bright light which healed Orihime's face, which after the hit was bleeding, and it seemed to affect Ulquiorra; he panicked about the light and decided to point shoot Orihime in the chest for a new cero oscuras, but the Shouten Kisshun was broken by Tsubaki, who attacked Ulquiorra's arm in order to deviated the shoot. Orihime knew that her Shouten Kisshun was the best shoot to recover Ulquiorra's memory, as both of them found a very deep bond while being embraced by that light; however he didn't give her a chance to use it. He created a 'lanza del relampago' and Orihime tried to stand her ground with a defensive shiten koushun, and while the backfire successfully landed in most of Ulquiorra's body, the lightning spear did broke the defense she built and pierced her waist. Blood flew away from her body as she fell backwards, and she took a last shoot. Tsubaki attacked Ulquiorra's wings, while was still regenerating after receiving his own attack backfire and as such he lost balance and fell in front of Orihime, unable to fly away, as she hugged her and called the Shouten Kisshun forth. She didn't have much time, her wounds were bad, she wasn't that physically strong and Ulquiorra could rip her apart in any moment.

"Please, try to remember me!"

But then Ulquiorra, in despair as he never faced such an opponent, managed to create a brand new lightning spear and it was about to pierced Orihime's chest. But the spear disappeared, Orihime managed to return it to a state when it wasn't created, it was able to reject the event of Ulquiorra creating it. And that's when Ulquiorra lost it, when he felt scared as hell, even more as Orihime did not only heal her own wounds, but his. Why? Why would a woman go that far for her enemy?

"What are your intentions, woman?" Ulquiorra asked as the Shouten Kisshun's light vanished and he took his distance.

"Because we knew each other, and we loved each other." Orihime replied "We made a pact… I would share my heart with you…"

"You…"

Before he could say whatever he meant to say, he was shot in the chest with a blue light edged blade. Orihime recognized it as Ulquiorra stepped backwards bleeding from his injury, taking the blade out of his body.

"I'm sorry." Uryuu said as he stepped forward "But I'm not able to take it anymore; watching you tearing her flesh apart was too much, even if she could heal herself, I'm not allowing it!"

"Uryuu!" Orihime shouted puzzled, as she was relieved and concerned "This is my battle, I can…"

"No, you are going to get killed." Uryuu interjected "You care about that guy, and so you are ready to die for him. I'm not letting that happening.

"Uryuu."

"Come on, Ulquiorra!" Uryuu taunted "I'll show you the strength of my Quincy's pride!"


	23. Joint Swords

_**A/N:**Sorry it took kind of long, I have been having troubles with my semester at college, so I had to stop writing for a while, however now I caught a break from it to start again! Enjoy_

* * *

**Joint Swords**

"Are you sure we did the right thing? Leaving Orihime behind?"

Rukia couldn't know for sure; not only Orihime was left to her own luck, but their forces were also considerably reduced as Uryuu stood back in order to help her- who Rukia couldn't trust just yet- and now there were just the two of them, as they couldn't even count for a second in Kon to assist them. However, she did know that Orihime needed resolution on her own, closure, and so they couldn't interfere, they had to believe she would catch up later.

"Yes." Rukia said faintly "We had to."

Her reply was short, firm, but also bleak. Tatsuki wasn't sure of anything anymore, the only thing that seemed like a goal was reaching Ichigo, but then… what? He surely had also forgotten about them. Why was all this happening? No matter how many times she asked that question in her mind, there seemed to be no way to answer it.

They were now in a new hell zone, which was better than the dark zone, yet still disturbing; they were walking in a snow path, which seemed endless, and there was a pale blue sky was filled with red clouds that sometimes rained blood and stained, for a short while, the snow with a scarlet color and just by stepping into the red snow you could see the most painful memories of the person whose blood was raining. That's right, the blood was the hell prisoner's blood, it was a punishment both for those whose blood rained and for those who stepped into it, so they could share the same pain that they suffered while being alive. Hell was awful, and endless, there was no doubt that you would go insane there, even Rukia, who usually didn't even blink at that kind of things, was a little freaked out.

"Uryuu told us to keep walking in this direction in order to find Ichigo." Tatsuki said breaking the silence "Did he lie?"

"I don't see why." Rukia said.

"I do."

It was the first time in a very long while that Kon spoke up; he was so terrified with all the events that took place that he just kept shut as he held onto Rukia's back the whole time. He climbed towards her shoulders and he gave Tatsuki a serious look.

"You should have never come; there is no one in hell that you can trust."

"Not even you?"

"Not even me." Kon replied "Those who come to hell and are not chained can only have malevolent goals. I don't know how I ended up here, but I do know what Uryuu has done, what Sado and Ichigo have done… the three of them rule hell in different ways."

Rukia and Tatsuki stopped walking and, as their eyes opened wide and their mouths were left open with no words coming out of them, they listened to Kon's word.

"Ichigo is the king of hell, so every single hell guardian bows to him. If he wants he can cause as much pain to the souls as he wants or even worse… he can send them to eternal purge."

"Eternal purge?"

"It's a fate worse than death, or even worse than being erased by Uryuu; your body is reduced into size of a tiny ball and you return to the point of which your existence is created, but before being conscious, and you're left like that forever, in eternal loneliness. You never knew love, you never had faith, you only know loneliness and it's your companion until the day comes and hell falls."

Both Tatsuki and Rukia gulped.

"Ichigo… has the ability to do so?"

"Of course not; nobody has that kind of power." Kon explained "It's the ultimate hell zone, one that is out of reach for everyone and can only be accessed by hell's king judgment, yet to get to that… I don't know if Ichigo ever dictated such punishment, I just know that it exists."

"How do you know that?" Rukia asked reluctant "You said you just appeared here, so how do you know?"

"I told you that Ichigo, Sado and Uryuu rule hell in different ways. Ichigo is the king, Uryuu rules by fear as he can vanish souls. When I woke up here I was along with Yasotura Sado, that's why I know he is Ichigo's right and left hand, that's why I'm not chained in hell yet. He is in command of hell forces; he kept me with him and he showed me what hell is all about, and then… he left me for dead, leaving Uryuu at my trail. Then…"

"Then we came." Tatsuki interrupted.

She closed a fist; however who changed things was a very cruel person, to damage people by removing Ichigo from the timeline and turning him into hell's king… it was awful. She wanted to meet Ichigo at the double and make him remember, just like Rukia came to remember. Rukia shared the same feeling and they both kept walking.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Kon asked "Are you still going?"

"Your story is terrifying." Rukia replied "Yet our resolution hasn't wavered."

"We will save Ichigo." Tatsuki added as she closes even tighter the fist "Sado, as well, and everyone else who has been affected."

"You… you are insane!" Kon said as he jumped off Rukia's shoulder "I can't go with you! I rather become a hell prisoner before entering in eternal purge!"

Before leaving the girls behind, he noticed a look he had never seen before: kindness. Tatsuki and Rukia were showing real concern about him, something nobody ever showed to him- in this timeline-, something he saw never seeing, and he felt overwhelm by this strange feeling, and so he became afraid as he never felt such thing and he paralyzed while his eyes seemed about to break into tears and his body fell in the snow, numb. Then Rukia grabbed him and hugged him.

She never thought she would do that; she always thought Kon was annoying, but just by looking at how he was now she could now understand how important he was for her, because they were friends, companions, because of the time they spent together, and she knew that, deep down, Kon only meant well for everyone, even if he was a pervert. And so she let some tears fall as she remember that not only he, but everyone was affected, to remember how lonely the world was without Ichigo in their lives, how she wanted to tell him what she felt for him… no, tell everyone, Renji, Byakuya, Uryuu, Sado, Kon there, Orihime, Tatsuki… all of them! She wanted them to know how much she cared!

Kon was shocked; it was the very first time- in this timeline and the original- that someone held him so tender, it was the first time someone shed tears for him and he felt that he was being loved. And so he cried out loud as he hanged on Rukia's kimono tightly, trying to grasp and understand all these feelings that were dancing around his chest.

Tatsuki was moved by this; it was the first time she saw Rukia shedding tears, and it was kind of beautiful; Rukia's skill were snow skills she was the ice queen, and now, in middle of the pure white snow that hadn't been stained by blood, she showed what was in her heart. It made Tatsuki shed some tears as well.

"Nee… nee-chan…" Kon mumbled with faint voice.

"Do you remember me, Kon?" Rukia asked.

"Not completely…" Kon admitted while faintly smiling "But I do remember being hit by you a lot."

"You deserved it." Rukia said while a soft laugh escaped from her and Kon's mouth "You always sought towards me when you were scared, shouting 'nee-chan', reaching for my breasts… you were a pervert, but you also cared for me."

"Because you were a part of my life…" Kon mumbled.

"And so you are."

Kon stopped sobbing and he climbed once again to Rukia's shoulder as a new resolution came towards his face. Tatsuki could tell that he was struggling against fear; he was being brave.

"Ok, then!" Kon said trying to sound cool "I might not remember all of it, but let's go against Ichigo! I BELIEVE YOU! LET'S BRING THAT BASTARD DOWN!"

Rukia and Tatsuki shared a smile; even while Kon was not an ally to count on battle, the fact that he was on their side cheered them, and made them really happy. Baby steps, they were recovering everyone, slowly, but surely.

* * *

Uryuu didn't know why this battle felt familiar, like he had fought the guy in front of him before, but he didn't care. He noticed that, even while being wounded by the Seele Schneider, the injury started recovering.

_High speed regeneration… he is strong and he recovers fast, so it will be hard. If it was just me I might have no chance, but as I have that Orihime girl at my side we might be able to injure him fatally before he can restore._

Ulquiorra drew the light blue edged blade out of his chest as a steam of blood flew away, but he recovered and threw the blade away; Uryuu shot a single arrow towards the blade and it span in the air as it started falling to the ground, but instead of just hitting the ground, it embed on the ground, lighting the dark zone a little bit. _Good,__one__ready,__four__to__go._He shared a look with Orihime and somehow they were able to read each other minds; Uryuu knew that Orihime wanted a chance to take Ulquiorra down herself, and so the only thing that he needed to do was bind him, and Orihime understood that Uryuu was going to bind him, but that his defense was weak, while his speed was really high, so she could make that up for him.

Ulquiorra said no words, Uryuu drew a new Seele Schneider and he brandished it against him as if it was a mere sword, but Ulquiorra dodged easily, and he was about to grab Uryuu's arm, however Orihime reacted quick and she defended Uryuu with a santen kesshun that forced Ulquiorra to step backwards and Uryuu took a split second chance to move with hirenkiaku to his enemy's back and slash. He could have stabbed him in a vital spot, yet he could not do that to Orihime, not after seeing how far she was ready to go only to get to him, so he decided to steal some of the power with which he created a 'lanza del relampago' and then stepped backwards to encrust the second Seele Schneider. Ulquiorra lost no time and he tried to attack Orihime as she had to wait some seconds before being able to call the saten kesshun again, and so she rolled before Ulquiorra's hands could reach him. Uryuu drew his third blade and he protected Orihime from a new blow from Ulquiorra blocking the black wing, that was headed towards Orihime as a sharp blade, and as he deviated it he also embed it in the ground as he drew the fourth one to exchange blows with Ulquiorra's wings, which were moving faster than he could reach and as they touched his arms he started bleeding, but he was able to throw Ulquiorra backwards and he made his bow appear in order to shoot the fourth Seele Schneider, which was rejected by Ulquiorra's wings, but which was embed in the right spot.

_Last__one._Orihime called Tsubaki and sent him towards Ulquiorra in order to make him roll to his right as Uryuu shoot the last Seele Schneider and the Quincy cross was formed as Ulquiorra was forced to step into the spot where he would be trapped. In usual conditions he should have been able to break through that binding, but as Uryuu drew the force of 'lanza del relampago' into one of his blades, the binding force was amplified. Orihime stepped into it as she released all her shin shun rikka, preparing to do a technique she knew, but never used before.

"Kyozetsu han'nō no yūkan'na saigo no tate"*

* * *

* Last valiant shield of rejection


	24. Truth's Sword

_**A/N:**One year! One year has gone by since I started writing this story! Thanks for following it so far! I will upload a special anniversary chapter between today and Monday! Enjoy!_

* * *

**Truth's Sword**

"I've never used this technique before…" Orihime said with faint voice, with a glimpse of sadness in her gaze "I was saving it for later, but then again, I didn't know we would meet."

Uryuu got away from them, while watching how the dark zone, suddenly, became embraced by a golden light.

Orihime's shin shun rikka were six different spots in the ground; they glimmered as they spread light around the whole floor, forming a flower. Each shin shun rikka acted as flower petal of light, covering them in five meters square, and they were in the center of a flower that seemed like a daisy.

Ulquiorra was unable to move, not because of the binding Seele Schneiders, but for Orihime's technique, it was rejecting every single movement he tried to make as the light embraced both. Orihime hugged Ulquiorra as she smiled.

"This technique consumes my whole spiritual pressures and allows me to reject anything in the zone. In other words, everything here is under my control."

Ulquiorra was filled with fear; he couldn't move, he was trapped, and he would most likely die… or that's what he thought, until Orihime kissed him. He didn't understand why she did it, but he couldn't avoid remembering the sensation of having that woman around her arms, and feeling her heart beat as if it was his. _I__love__you.__So...__if__we__meet__again,__I__shall__be__able__to__share__my__heart__with__you._He remembered those words… Orihime wasn't rejecting his existence as he previously thought she would, she was rejecting him forsaking her… she was bringing his memories back.

And so he snapped, and Orihime allowed him to move, so he could hug her as his black wings covered both of them, trying to protect her beloved one from any possible harm.

Uryuu was quite puzzled by what was happening; he could tell that Orihime was in complete control around that zone of rejection, yet the fact that she allowed her enemy to move, and the enemy itself hugging her, was really confusing. _Did__she__turn__him__in__our__side?_The answer was obvious, and quite annoying for some reason. For the first time, in quite a lot, Uryuu felt like he was being hurt, and it was also the first time that he really didn't care that much, because he was also quite relieved to see her ok. What was it with her? Why every single fiber in his body told him to protect her? It wasn't like they knew each other… could it be that he was like Ulquiorra? That there was something missing? A lost link? A lost bond?

The light faded and Orihime fainted in Ulquiorra's arm, who held her tightly. Uryuu lost no time to collect his fives blade shaped arrows and then he looked at Ulquiorra with a little bit of hesitation, as his form shifted; his wings disappeared, his body was covered in mist for some seconds as he changed: he was wearing some white cloth, similar to those of the soul reaper, the upper right side of his head had the fragment of a mask, his skin was completely pale white and there was no trace of the black fur he once had around his body. He was the same person, but different… no, no person, arrancar.

Uryuu was not someone to be fooled; he could tell by the way he held Orihime that his concern for her was just as strong- or stronger- than his, yet there was no real reason to trust him completely. They could only move forward, and he would have to keep an eye on him.

"Is Orihime alright?" Uryuu asked coldly.

"Yes, she just fainted." Ulquiorra said tranquil "You are one of her friends, right?"

Friend? Could he be called that? They merely met the day before! And yet…

"Yes." Uryuu replied also calmed, it was easier that way "She was with two girls, Tatsuki and Rukia, in their way to find the king of hell Ichigo…"

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" asked Ulquiorra shocked.

"You must be mistaken." Uryuu replied "It' only Ichigo… or hell's king Ichigo."

"Let's go there at once."

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Tatsuki asked.

"We're reaching the end of this zone; the next one should be the king's chamber." Kon replied.

Tatsuki was anxious; she would finally have her showdown with Ichigo, somehow they would manage to bring him back. Rukia was as anxious as Tatsuki and they stepped faster, but they had to back down as soon as Rukia saw a cherry blossom petal near them.

"Tatsuki! Step back!"

Both of them did and avoided what seemed to be hundreds of cherry blossom petals, while a man in a black kimono and white haori appeared.

"Brother…"

* * *

_**A/N:**Sorry it was a shorter chapter! It was just announced that my book is going to get published :D! I have to go now, but I'll be back. Thanks for reading ^^_


	25. Trust's Sword

_**A/N:**Hey guys! Sorry if I kept you waiting, but I have amazing news! MY BOOK IS GOING TO GET PUBLISHED! Yep, I wrote a book and about a month ago I was told it was going to get published, and so I've been incredibly busy working on that, and so I entered in a hiatus. I'm really excited, my dream is coming true… but still I have some others stories to unfold! And I'm not leaving this one behind!_

_Well, it's been sometime since I uploaded chapters… where were we? Oh, yeah! Tatsuki and Rukia just met with Byakuya! More of the intricate plot is going to unfold soon, and I'm planning for this to be a story of 40 to 50 chapters, so we still some time left! But the most important thing is for you to enjoy! So let's keep going on!_

* * *

**Trust's Sword**

"Brother?" Tatsuki asked puzzled "Did your bother just attack us? You must have some family issues…"

"Not now Tatsuki." Rukia replied as she stared at Byakuya "Brother… why have you attacked us?"

"Brother?" Byakuya asked "Just, who are you?"

Rukia was a little bit shocked by the response, however she did expect something like that to happen, after all she did also lost her memory once, still… this time it seemed that the person in front of her was someone entirely different, and she could tell because there was nothing in his eyes, and it wasn't his usual calm that he always expressed as a cloak to hide his feelings, there seemed to be really nothing in him, just like if who he once was just disappeared.

"Rukia, did he…?"

Rukia didn't answer, she merely extended her arm in front of Tatsuki as she drew her sword and prepare for battle.

"No way!" Tatsuki replied as she raises her fists "I had it with leaving Orihime behing! I'm not ditching you too."

"I can take care of myself" Rukia replied coldly "so please, let me settle this myself."

But Tatsuki didn't listen, she lowered Rukia's arm and smiled.

"You have a serious issue with pride." Tatsuki commented "There is no use in dieing with pride; if you are going to battle, battle to win or to survive! Don't go in a battle ready to die, be ready to live!"

Tatsuki was about to say something else, but Byakuya quickly slipped through their senses and appeared behind them, but Tatsuki, who was trained by the master of shunpo, was able to sense that movement anyway and grabbed Byakuya's wrist, deflecting the blade's direction and then she punched Byakuya in the waist, forcing him to step backward.

"There are always people waiting for you at the end of every battle." Tatsuki said "So you can't die! And if someone can help you out, you should accept! You don't have to carry the burden all to yourself!"

Rukia was moved by those words; it was the first time in a long time that she felt she could really rely on someone. She hadn't felt that way since the days where she and Ichigo fought together, and it was nice; it was really comforting knowing that a friend could help you out, even while dealing with the most personal conflicts.

"Thank you Tatsuki." Rukia said smiling "I needed that."

Tatsuki smiled back as they prepared for battle.

Byakuya released his zanpaktou and the cherry blossom petals flew towards them, but Rukia quickly froze them. That gave them time to fall back as the frozen petals broke through the ice to chase them. Tatsuki noticed some of them were about to reach her and she quickly extended her hand in order to cast a Soukatsui, and a great blaze of blue fire was able to drive away most of the petals, however she was taken by surprise by Byakuya's quick move of shunpo and was almost hit by a white lightning that came out of his fingers, yet she was able to gracefully dodge by flipping and she kicked Byakuya's face as she recovered her stance; Byakuya quickly resembled the petals to restore the blade's shape and tried to stab Tatsuki, but she was fast enough to not only dodge, but also hit his cheek with might, forcing him to step backward, falling in Rukia's set up: the floor quickly froze and he was soon sealed by a huge ice pillar.

"Well, that wasn't too hard…"

"It's too soon to speak." Rukia said "He's breaking out soon, so I just bought us some seconds to think."

Just as Rukia said, they were mere seconds. Byakuya broke free from the ice pillar, which fell apart around them as she raised her blade; those seconds helped her to formulate a plan, still she needed to get Tatsuki to move forward or she would be in danger.

Byakuya's sword and Rukia's clashed and for the first time she was able to hear what seemed to be a resonance at the sound of the clashing katanas; they exchanged continues sword hits and every time something seemed to echoed, there was some kind of resonance every time the sword touched each other and she was able to feel something. The man in front of her wasn't her brother; and then she was relieved, and she pushed him forward as a smile crossed her face.

"Tatsuki, you might continue."

Tatsuki was about to reply, but when she saw Rukia she was relieved; she wasn't hesitating anymore about hurting that man, she was sure of her victory and she wouldn't hold back anymore. That alone was enough to trust her.

Before she could go, Rukia threw Kon- who hid clanging in her neck the whole time-, at Tatsuki.

"Guide her! I will catch up later!"

"Nee-chan!" Kon refuted "I want to stay with you!"

"Help Tatsuki!" Rukia ordered "We will meet later."

"Nee-chan!"

"KON!"

Kon became silent as Rukia gave him a quick calm and confident warm smile. That face was enough to wash away all his concerns, because- just as Tatsuki did- he was able to see that for the first on the time, since he knew her, she held no burden on her back. She was going all out, for the first time she would show her true power, her true potential.

"Make sure you kick his ass, Nee-chan!" Kon yelled.

"I will." Rukia replied smiling.

* * *

"Why do you have to hold her?" A male voice asked.

"Do you want to carry her?" A deeper voice asked.

"Not particularly, but I've just met you, I can't trust you yet."

"Then hold her."

"Hold on a sec!"

By the time she opened her eyes, her breast where all over Uryuu's face. She blinked twice as she readjusted and made Uryuu step backwards, whose face was red as a tomato.

"Ishida-kun?" Orihime asked.

By the time she asked she noticed that she said the wrong name; she should have called him Uryuu, but against all expectations Uryuu didn't seem to care being called by his family name, or at least he didn't mind her calling him like that, as he didn't show any kind of anger by being called like that.

"Until you awake!" Uryuu said sighing "Seriously, I was starting to think that technique of yours drew your whole spiritual pressure out."

_That__'__s __true__… __I __was __in__ a __battle__… __we__ were__ against__… _She turned around and she found out that Ulquiorra was with them. Her heart beat strong as she stared at the white clothes he was wearing, checking out for what seemed a cold face that showed deep green eyes, filled with emotion as he stared at Orihime. Even his white pale faced seemed to gain some color as their eyes met. Orihime walked towards him and she was quickly hugged, tenderly as Ulquiorra tried not to break her with the hug as she was the most precious thing in the world. Uryuu looked away as he seemed to be about to throw up by the corny moment; Orihime noticed that he didn't like that outcome and she tried not to remain around Ulquiorra's arm too long, not because she didn't want to, but to avoid hurting Uryuu.

"I'm so glad you're back to your usual self."

"I'm glad I found you again." Ulquiorra said calmly "After we met in the human world I was certain we would not meet again, but as long as you were safe it was ok, and then I came to forget…"

"Yeah, yeah, that's all a pretty lovely love story and all." Uryuu said while walking past them to lead the road "However, if you could cut that cheesiness and we could keep going we should arrive to Ichigo's chamber in no longer than a few hours."

Orihime looked around them; she was glad that they were no longer in the dark zone, yet the zone they were wasn't that good either. They were in a path stained with blood; narrow and made of weak wooden as in the sides laid rivers of blood. There was a crimson light filling the place that allowed them to see where they were going.

"Follow me." Uryuu said coldly.

And so they did, but Orihime could tell that Uryuu was particularly upset, yet what could she do about it?

* * *

As the fight continued the echo became stronger and stronger, and the more sure she was that that man wasn't her brother. Everything about him was absolutely misplaced, it was a mere cheap replica with the same skills and a different heart, and he had no mind of his own. Still it wasn't easy to battle against his brother's skills, he was a captain after all and managed to injure Rukia in both arms, opening some bad cuts, while Rukia was merely able to cut his ankles. But as soon as she wasn't able to feel Tatsuki's presence, she smiled.

"Good, Tatsuki is gone." Rukia said "Now I can really go out."

"Why wait?" Byakuya asked.

"Because this is too dangerous for anyone around me." Rukia answered as she lifted her sword "BANKAI!"


	26. Mist's Sword

_**A/N: **Sorry to have kept you waiting so much time for a new chapter! College has been crazier than ever! However, I do want to leave you this short chapter before disappearing again until March (sorry too much to do x_x). For those who don't know it already, I'm publishing a book! :D, yet it's only on my home country (Chile xD), so it might take a while to get known, yet I thought you should know as it was one of the things that got me busy. Anyway, I pretend to finish this story eventually, so let's get to work!_

* * *

**Mist's Sword**

"Bankai?" Byakuya asked.

A great amount of mist covered Rukia and she was not seen by Byakuya. The mist was so dense and so huge that it covered Byakuya's sight within seconds; he didn't flinch, he merely dropped his sword as he prepared to counter attack.

"Bankai" he said. "Cut, Senbonsakura kageoshi."

Thousands, if not millions, of cherry blossom petals made a barrier around Byakuya in order to defend him, however, just as Rukia said, that man wasn't him and as the real one should have been able to see through Rukia's movement, this man didn't, and so he received a cut on his arm without even sensing it.

"If you are so sure I'm not your brother, why do you hesitate?" he asked "Why didn't you cut my throat?"

"Because I need to understand what you did with the real one."

"Why would I tell you?"

The mist suddenly cleared a little bit and it allowed fake Byakuya to see Rukia, who now held two swords, one in each hand and they were equally white and pure, also they were join by a ribbon that started in each sword hilt as she wore a snow white kimono. Rukia rose her swords towards Byakuya and calmly said "Fubuki.*"

The real Byakuya would have been able to react, he would have avoided that attack and he would have had a fair battle with Rukia, however it didn't happen. The mist around Byakuya suddenly became ice and he became frozen solid as Rukia lowered her swords.

"My bankai is why too dangerous to use around allies." She said "Sode no Shirayuki extends her domain on ice and snow around the mist and so she governs through everything on earth and sky."

And so the ice broke and killed the fake Byakuya. Rukia could feel how the spiritual leftover, which at the beginning felt like Byakuya, ended up feeling different, which meant she wasn't wrong. She never had a doubt, after all the training she did she became able to see beyond spiritual pressure, Orihime helped her to be able to see the true aura of people, and so now she knew exactly how her brother felt and that man wasn't him. She deactivated the bankai and she followed the path towards the end of the zone in order to reach Tatsuki and, if she was lucky enough, Ichigo too. He needed to remember her, and so she could finally tell him what she was never able to.

* * *

"So, in this alternate universe, timeline or whatever, we were friends?"

Orihime nodded to Uryuu's question. They weren't by any chance in an alternate universe or timeline, however it was easier that way to explain Uryuu all the questions he had, as such to why they were so set to rescue Ichigo.

"It's hard to imagine Ichigo as anything but hell's king." He said.

"For us is the other way around." Ulquiorra said calmly "He always seemed to be too self righteous to be such a thing."

Orihime was quite tired wandering zone to zone and yet not find anything. They were now closer, as Ishida said, to Ichigo. Instead of taking the official route that he led Tatsuki and Rukia they were taking a shortcut in order to reach them faster, and so they were traveling around a pretty disturbing crimson tiling corridor filled with endless paints around the walls, painting in which people suddenly appeared and showed different kinds of torture, and those were real prisoners being tortured as Uryuu said. Orihime had to watch up straight, yet it was kind of hard considering that it was somewhat tentative to look right or left once in a while.

"Are we there yet?" Orihime asked.

"How many times will you keep asking that?" Uryuu asked sighing "We are just two zones away, this one and the coliseum."

"Coliseum?" Orihime asked.

"They make the prisoner fight themselves to death so they get revived and die all over again." Uryuu explained "It's not that hardcore if you consider what we've seen as far, however we might want to be careful, there's a lot of fighters there and dieing means…"

"I know." Orihime interrupted "We'll be careful."

"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

Uryuu and Ulquiorra said that at the same time; they glared at each other for like a second and then they kept looking forward as Orihime giggled.

* * *

Rangiku was pretty disturbed by all what Gin said, but he was perfectly calmed as he looked Rangiku with a smile.

"I've been waiting for you… for a very long time" he said "please, take the hogyoku off my chest."

Rangiku's eyes opened wide as she considered it could be a trap, but she knew she had no time to wonder, so she extended her hand towards the sphere and she extracted it from Gin's chest. It was weird, as she held that thing in her hand it seemed as it was shut down, it had no glimmer inside it as it used to do, it was like if the power was… drained… and so she looked at Gin who gave, maybe for the first time in his life, a smile.

"Thank you." He said as his body seemed to start breaking apart "Now, I can go where I belong."

"G…Gin!" Rangiku yelled as she grabbed his hand, which became full of cracks.

"No, no Rangiku." Gin said as his body started to fall apart, becoming ashes "You must be strong… you might be our only hope… you and that girl Tatsuki."

Rangiku didn't understand, what was all this? Why did Gin do all that?

"I've been waiting to die a long time." He said "Now I can, and if my death might bring you hope… then I'm happy."

Rangiku start shedding tears; she still didn't understand quite what was happening, yet she could see in that man's eyes that he meant his words.

"Don't trust anyone easily. And be careful…"

And just like that Gin became ashes in the wind as she held what seemed to be a lifeless hogyoku. What was she meant to do with it? She didn't know, and she couldn't really care that much, because as she held it she could only feel how the man before his eyes had just passes away, something he seemed to have been wishing for? Why? Although she thought she would never know, she would come to know why and until then she had to stay strong. She left the room while shedding tears in search for Kisuke Urahara, the only man that could understand what was going on.

However as soon as she left the room she was attacked. She was hit in the neck with such mighty that she started falling unconscious as a young man took the hogyoku, but before she passed out, she heard a voice.

"This is not your fight."

That was Toshiro Hitsugaya's voice.


	27. Hornet Sword

_**A/N: **The girls are back! With much more energy on their veins! And luckily before March xD. It's been a crazy month for me, really, really insane! And fan fiction seems to hate me! For several days I wasn't able to log in -_-'. However, now that we are back I noticed that I should focus a little more on Tatsuki now. Enjoy!_

* * *

**Hornet Sword**

"Are you sure this is the way?"

It was a really weird place for being hell; Tatsuki followed Kon's instruction and as they left the snow zone they entered a new one… which was kind of peaceful. Very deceiving, a simple island, a huge tree and all kind of creatures, but non of them like the hell's prisoners they encountered as far, but more like something jagged of Monster Quest all around, insects and chimeras Tatsuki could easily defeat either with kidou or a strong punch, nothing that seemed to be a threat.

"I feel like I've been pulled out of hell and I've been thrown to Fairy Tail."

"What the hell is that?" Kon asked.

"A fun anime to watch on Fridays." Tatsuki said as they walked around "You didn't answer my question, are we in the right track?"

"Actually we should have made it to the coliseum…" Kon said puzzled "I don't really understand how we ended up here; I've never seen this hell zone. However you should be careful; if this zone seems peaceful is a cover! It must have some dire dirty secret!"

"It sounds so bad when you say like that," Tatsuki said sighing "I'm very…"

Before she ended the phrase she jumped to her right as someone landed on the very spot she was standing a second ago. The impact rose dust and she wasn't able to see the enemy, who was fast, but she was able to sense someone coming after her and she bent backwards to avoid a hit to the head and quickly flipped trying to hit the enemy, yet she missed, and once she was standing once again she recognized the shape of a woman, a little bit short, using a black shirt with no sleeves and what seemed to be the lower part of the soul reaper's kimono. She had the look of an assassin, the type who would kill you without asking many question, and she also had a short black hair.

"Who…?"

Tatsuki wasn't able to ask the question, because as she thought the woman was indeed that kind of assassin that didn't ask any questions and so she had to use all her focus to avoid her hand; her right hand was covered on some piece of metal, and it extended through one of her fingers as a sting; she knew she couldn't be hit with it, she just sensed it, and so she moved quickly to avoid it. Right, bend backwards, flip, punch the wrist, move left, move right, bend again, and so that pace repeated as a pattern; she moved in that fashion in order to avoid the countless attacks her enemy threw at her, while trying to find an opening. And she did; after she moved left in order to avoid a cut coming from the opposite direction she kicked the woman's waist as fast as she could and then she extended her hand towards her.

"Sajo Sabaku!" Tatsuki yelled.

"Dankuu"

Before the sparkling gold chains could even reach the woman a barrier protected her and both had to jump backward so they wouldn't catch the recoil after both kidous clashed.

"You have amazing speed." The woman praised "Who taught you that?"

"If I told you the name, you would hunt her down, wouldn't you?" Tatsuki asked.

"You are a sharp girl." The woman said "Soi Fong, that's my name, tell me yours."

"Tatsuki Arisawa." She said smiling "I didn't expect you to start chatting."

"I merely wanted to know" Soi Fong said calmly "what's the name of the girl I'm going to kill."

"May I ask why?"

"Why does an assassin kill?" she asked as she was replying to a kid.

Tatsuki knew what she meant and she wondered if it was possible that Ichigo ordered Soi Fong to kill her, but before she could ask her that she noticed that she wanted to resume the fight again, so she took a step forward and decided to take the offensive.

"Hadou sanjuu san (32)" Tatsuki said while pointing at Soi Fong "Okasen!"

A great golden beam came out of Tatsuki's and went forward Soi Fong who avoided it easily, Tatsuki expected that, and she also expected that she would appear behind her to try attack her, and so she quickly turned around and said.

"Bakudo no ichi (1). Sai!"

It was a weak spell meant to buy her only one second to stop her attempt to cut her, and so she could punch her with might in the face, but as soon as the fist made contact with the face she noticed that the body disappeared; it was a clone. And so she realized too late, as the hornet pierced through her back. Blood came out as Soi Fong drew the hornet out of Tatsuki's back and she felt how ink ran through her back taking the shape of a butterfly.

Tatsuki quickly withdrew a few steps behind and turned around to watch her enemy. It wasn't a good sign, and she was also nervous; ever since the training with Yoruichi ended she always fought along side Rukia and Orihime. Without them she felt a little bit weaker, and also it was the first time she saw her blood on the ground and feeling it spill through her back. She had bled before, but never like this, and it was an unsettling experience for her, something she wasn't used to, and so while she made sure she closed the wound with kidou she didn't look away from Soi Fong, who seemed to be waiting for the right moment to kill her. Tatsuki's eyes trembled in a little bit of fear, as she lay on a tree; the wound was closed, and her enemy was waiting for the right chance to take her off guard. To think that she was all alone in the battle, that there was no Orihime and Rukia to support her was more than she could take, as she got used to have at least one of them covering her back. Without them, what could she do?

"Hey! Are you alright?"

With all the things that were going on she forgot Kon was on her back. He held tight on her the whole time; he was holding her leg, a dangerous spot.

"Kon, get down and hide." Tatsuki warned.

"But…"

"Do it." Tatsuki said still a bit afraid "This woman is not toying with us."

Kon was forced to drop Tatsuki's leg as she rolled to the right, avoiding Soi Fong's next attack.

"What's the matter?" Soi Fong asked "Are you afraid?"

_Damn it! She saw through it! _If the enemy is able to read you then it's easier to fall in the enemy's mercy. Should she use shunkou? No, it was a last resort and Soi Fong wasn't going all out, so if she attacked with all at once there was the risk of wasting most of her spiritual pressure to then be left unguarded against her. She couldn't have that; she had to make it through with her usual skills. But she got cut in new places, around the arms and legs, but luckily she avoided being hit in the same place, she didn't know what would happen if she was hit twice in the same spot the ink imprinted in the skin, yet she imagined, it wasn't that hard to figure out.

Tatsuki was able to grab Soi Fong's hand and then stomp on both feet; then she headbutted her and she did something risky; she let go the hand that didn't have the hornet and with her left free hand she grabbed Soi Fong's face.

"Shiryū Gekizoku Shintenraihō!"

It was the strongest kidou she knew, and she still didn't master it, but the beam of blue spiritual pressure covered them both and threw them some inches back. Each of them covered their bodies in spiritual pressure in order to protect themselves from the blast; still there were several burns in each one's bodies.

Soi Fogn smiled.

"Not bad, no one has given me such a battle in quite some time" Soi Fong praised "I ask you again, who taught you this?"

"Like I'd talk." Tatsuki said smiling with arrogance.

"Could it be Yoruichi Shihoun?"

Tatsuki didn't mean to reveal it, but it was obvious, just as she heard the name she reacted and Soi Fong sighed.

"Only she could have forged such a speed in a girl like you." She said "I'm happy we met, so that I could kill you."

"You despise Yoruichi." Tatsuki said as she glared at Soi Fong.

"Of course, it seems she is more found of you as a student than me." Soi Fong said hurt "She left me, and now I can pay back by killing you."

Yoruichi abandoning her? It didn't sound like her, there must have been something she was missing. However she just lifts her fists and looked at Soi Fong with serious and calm eyes; the fear had passed, and suddenly she knew she could do it. They were both trained by the same person, so there had to be some similarities in their fighting style, something they could use.

"I'm not holding back anymore."

She could see how some kind of white tornados formed around her arms as her body was filled with white spiritual pressure. Tatsuki smiled.

_Shunko… you even taught us the same technique._

"Why are you smiling?" Soi Fong asked.

"It's that I know I'm not losing!" Tatsuki replied.

And so she extended her arm and she let her remaining spiritual energy to become lightening, thunders that gathered in her back, forming jolt wings as her body sparkled with those white thunders formed by her spiritual energy; and a thunder sword was forged at her right hand.

"Ok." Tatsuki said as she prepared to let herself go at her fullest "Let's go."


	28. Murderer's Sword

_**A/N: **Over 6000 hits? Wow! That's amazing! The Heroine Complex just became my most hit story in this site! Plus 15 and 16 alerts! You guys are awesome! I'll try to keep it up so you can keep enjoying!_

* * *

**Murderer's Sword**

"What the…?"

Soi Fong wasn't able to grasp what Tatsuki was doing; the technique was different… no, it just seemed different, but the fact was that her body was wrapped around spiritual pressure, and it was a very strong one. But why? She shouldn't know how to do that! Or so she thought, but Tatsuki did know and now she was concerned on how she passed from a defenseless girl to a respectable warrior; that was how much the look on her eyes changed.

"Yourichi also taught you shunko, uh?" Tatsuki asked.

"What?" Soi Fong asked "You shouldn't know that technique! I invented it!"

Tatsuki raised her left eyebrow; what did she mean she invented it? It didn't matter, because Soi Fong tried to take her by surprise, but her movement became quite clear to Tatsuki and so he grabbed her right wrist before it could reach the inked butterfly that lied in her skin.

"You became slower."

Tatsuki didn't realize that, in fact, she became faster. The spiritual pressure condensed in kidou around her body made her even faster than before, and so Soi Fong wasn't able to react when Tatsuki punched her in the face, and just when she was stepping backwards Tatsuki appeared behind her to kick her waist. Soi Fong flew backwards and crashed against a tree as Tatsuki stood strong.

"Did Yoruichi teach you that?" Soi Fong asked.

"She did." Tatsuki replied calmly "She taught me this technique so I could fight people like you… this is my first time using it in battle actually."

"You must be very confident to tell me something like that."

"I am." She said calmly "I can't afford to lose."

"Then why have you waited this long to kill me?" she asked smirking "Haven't you realized that words in battle are useless? Unless, of course, you want to earn some time."

Tatsuki came to a realization just too late; there was no reason for a cold blooded killer like her to start talking in the battlefield, and she just played her game, as she just merely wanted to earn a few seconds to do whatever she wanted to do. And so, as she was about to try knock her down, Soi Fong acted.

"Bankai!"

Soi Fong was protected by a explosion of spiritual pressure Tatsuki wasn't able to cut through, not even while focusing as many jolts as she could in a fast strike. She was forced to jump backwards and she stared at the bankai.

"Jakuho Raikoben."

It was a weird looking weapon the one she held on her hand, it was like a giant golden hornet held by a rocket launcher. Also she wore a steel sash under armor, so it didn't seem like she cared for speed that much anymore… not it was all on the attack now.

"I would have preferred not to use this."

Tatsuki was filled with fear as she thought those words would be the last she would ever hear, and so she thought the best would be to be ready to avoid an attack that she couldn't actually predict. But, when? Should she start running right back then? There was no way to be sure, what if that what she wanted?

"It's too flashy for an assassination."

Just then she realized that if she didn't move she would have died.

The hornet was shot and she ran faster than she ever did. She managed to dodge the core of the blast, but it was shot so fast that she couldn't avoid the rest of the steam that came from it. She covered herself on the jolt wings that her shunko made, and that would have been sufficient protection, but as she was not used using it the wings were overwhelmed by the blast and so her body was exposed.

She wasn't killed, but she was severely injured. Her body was badly hurt; there were bruises all along her body and some very nasty burns. She got very lucky considering that the whole forest now seemed a empty dessert; the trees and the grass left nothing but mere ashes around, ashes that even covered most of Tatsuki's badly beaten body. In the end the result was obvious: she lost. She wasn't ready and she was only so full of herself, so arrogant… she had no real battles so far, she was always shielded by Orihime and supported by Rukia… how was she supposed to stand her own feet?

At that realization she stood up; even while she had anything but little spiritual pressure left, even while her body seemed about to give up and her sight became blurry, she could not give up. There was too much on stake, and there were many people waiting for her, depending on her. And yet blood came out from her mouth and she fell on one knee as a exhausted- but not even close beaten up- Soi Fong walked towards her. The bankai disappeared, and there was only a simple zanpaktou left.

"I must praise your skills." Soi Fong said "No one has ever dodged nor survive to that blast. But I must also say that I don't use it that much. You've been a tough brat."

Tatsuki could see how the sword was pointing to her neck. She was going to be killed… but she wasn't going down without trying.

She stood up once again and took a defensive stance; her whole body seemed to be about to betray her and she fell as she felt the sword edge touching her neck. But she wasn't killed, and in fact the sword never made it to pierce it. A strong wind thrust Soi Fong back and Tatsuki's body. She was saved by luck.

Tatsuki managed to grab a lone branch that made it through the blast as Soi Fong was literally gone with the mighty wind.

"Tatsuki!"

That was Kon's voice, who happened to come flying along with the strong wind and grabbed on Tatsuki's ankle.

"What is going on?" Tatsuki asked.

"Hang in there!" Kon requested "I remembered this hell zone! If the wind gets you it will throw you into a hurricane so it was cut your body, then fix it and cut over million of times! You have to hold on tight or we are screwed!"

"Look at me!" Tatsuki yelled "Do I look like I can hold on for very long? Besides this branch is giving up too!"

"Just do it! If we don't we die! If we die here we become hell prisoners!"

"God dammit!" Tatsuki shouted "I don't think I'm going to make it!"

"JUST HANG ON, YOU PIECE OF…!"

Just when Kon was about to swear the wind suddenly stopped and Tatsuki finally let go as the branch broke into two pieces.

Tatsuki breathed in and out as she tried to think about what just happened. She got lucky; very, very lucky, because otherwise she would have been killed. How was she supposed to help Ichigo like this? She was beaten and now she realized that she wasn't strong enough.

"Anyway…" Kon said while sighing "What happened to you? I see you are badly injured, but if you are alive that means that you must have won."

"No…" Tatsuki said as a sad gaze covered her face "I actually lost… I was saved by that strong breeze."

"Well, that's what matters, right?" Kon said trying to cheer her up.

"How am I supposed to face Ichigo like this?"

"Hey, don't be so sad!" Kon interjected "So you lost… that happens, it doesn't mean you are weak. Besides, aren't you teaming up with nee-san and Orihime? You alone might not be able to do it, not even nee-san or Orihime might stand a chance… I would dare to say that the only option for you is to join forces."

_That was the plan… all along… _that wasn't what bothered Tatsuki. What really bothered her was the fact that she felt she was the weakest of the three of them. Both Orihime and Rukia had previous battle experience regarding spiritual battle, but Tatsuki had 0 real battle experience, just training.

Her defeat made her realize of her weakness. She gave Soi Fong too much time when she could have defeated her, she was being very naïve and she couldn't have that… and she still had to master shunko.

Her body was in a lot of pain, but she took it as a punishment for losing and smiled as she walked forward, ignoring the suffering each step was: those were the reminders of what was not mean to be repeated.

"Where to, Kon?" she asked as she struggled to keep walking.

"Are you sure you can walk?" he asked concerned

"I'm fine." Tatsuki replied smiling "This will only toughen me up, besides Orihime can heal me once we find her. Now, where to?"

Kon sighed as he took the lead.


	29. Traitor's Sword

_**A/N:** Sorry for taking so long to write a new chapter! Lots of things happened: college, the publishing of my book "El filo del Olvido" (Forsaken's Blade), my nephew being born, among many others! And I was surprised that, despite my absence, the hits still came. The story has almost reached 7000 hits! 18 favs and 15 alerts, I'm really shocked and really grateful. I enjoy writing the story, but I never thought it would become such a monster hit! (you know, for my standards it is xD), so I just wanted to thank you all who read the story, you are plain awesome and I'll keep doing my best. Enjoy :D!_

* * *

**Traitor's Sword**

"We're here"

Orihime's statement was anything but useless, that was what Uryuu thought as he, she and Ulquiorra walked down the golden round floor. The walls were pretty impressive, they were made in a way so they could also be a scaffold, in order for people to watch- or in this case hell prisoners-, and they were also made of pure gold that shone as a bright hut sun illuminated the way. There were no clouds in the lime sky above them, and for some reason that looked like a bad sign for Orihime as her feet kept moving forward, as if she knew something terrible was about to happen and tried to outrun that fate.

"Are you all right, Orihime?"

Ulquiorra's voice made Orihime snap; she was spacing out and her face showed signs of concern that worried Ulquiorra. She made sure to smile as she always did and waved her head. Ulquiorra sighed as he kept Orihime's pace. Uryuu did the same thing, but he wasn't going to stay silent like Ulquiorra.

"So, what's worrying you?"

Orihime gulped.

"It's probably nothing…" she lied "however I would like to catch up with Kuchiki-san and Tatsuki-san as soon as possible"

"I see" Uryuu said "We're not far from…"

He shut in middle of his sentence and he grabbed Orihime's waist; he jumped backward as something fell from the sky. It fell so fast that he couldn't recognized, he barely made it to react jumping backwards. Ulquiorra reacted the same way, but as he didn't have to grab Orihime he took the chance to draw his sword. Uryuu got his hand off Orihime and prepared his bow as Orihime herself got ready to fight as well.

Dust was raised when the thing fell from the sky, but in due seconds that dust dissipated and Orihime was shocked by what she saw.

"Sa… Sado-kun"

Indeed. Yasotura Sado was standing right in front of them. He dressed like usual, a long sleeves red shirt, elastic trousers, snickers, and he seemed the same, the hair was messy as ever, the body as big as she remembered. But she also remembered hearing that Sado was an enemy here, just like Ulquiorra was, so she didn't let her guard down.

"Do I know you?"

Sado's question made Orihime flinch. Did he remember? Or was he about to remember?

"Sado-kun! I…!"

It was a trap: she realized just in time to protect herself with santen kesshun, but if she didn't realize that it was a trap, that arm would have hit her in the chest, probably stopping her beating heart.

Ulquiorra was there in a split second and he waved his sword against Sado, yet he was quick enough to evade his attack and even land a kick on Ulquiorra's face while launching a spirit energy blast towards Uryuu who was about to shoot him. Uryuu dodged, Ulquiorra regained his stand, and Orihime moved towards Sado, holding her pins in her arms.

"Three against one, rather unfair" Sado claimed calmly "You could use some pride and face me one by one."

"Why would we…?"

"Fair enough" Orihime interrupted Uryuu at the double, she noticed she was being glared at, but she didn't mind "You'll fight me first".

"It's your call."

"What are you doing?" Uryuu complained as he grabbed Orihime's wrist "If we all go together…"

"… you or Ulquiorra might end up hurting Sado." Orihime stated "I can end the battle without harming him… badly."

Uryuu was about to complain, but he was shut the moment Ulquiorra put his hand on his shoulder and stared at Orihime.

"Is this what you want?"

"You bet."

"You understand that if you are about to be killed I'll interfere, right?"

"I would do the same thing".

There were no farther words needed or said, Ulquiorra grabbed Uryuu's arm and made him step backwards as Orihime stepped forward and made sure to stand very still and look strong: it was better sometimes if you were underestimated for being a woman or looking weak, however Orihime had already enough of that in the past and she wanted to be acknowledged as a warrior, like everybody else. This wasn't just about getting Sado back; it was about proving herself and the others that she could stand her own ground, on her own.

"Why are you so set on me?" Sado asked.

"You are an old friend."

"Interesting." Sado said as his right arm morphed into a shield "Yet I do not remember that".

Orihime gave a faint smile.

"Nobody remembers anything anymore".

Somehow this match felt fated for Orihime: after she learnt about her powers for the first time she and Sado were trained by Yoruichi to learn how to use them, both felt powerless in the Soul Society and also during the whole arrancar invasion, and just now both of them seemed truly mighty. And only one of them would prove to be actually skilled enough to hold a fight with Ichigo. And that, of course, had to be her… but would she be?

"Here I go."

_Why announce himself? _If an enemy wants to connect a hit the usual strategy is to remain silent and do nothing until you can take your enemy by surprise, if you actually announced that you are going to attack it meant that you probably want to test the enemy's reaction. That much Orihime understood, so instead of covering herself with either santen kesshun or shinten koushun she decided to simply dodge the blast that was thrown at her. It wasn't hard, Sado wasn't going all out.

Without even talking Orihime called Tsubaki forth and threw him toward Sado; he covered himself with his shield like arm, but Tsubaki was lost of his sight in a split second and his back was slashed. Sado merely reacted to the pain by jumping towards Orihime at high speed; this time she chose to cover herself with shiten koushun and Tsubaki came back as high speed to help form the pyramid like shield that Sado would end up hitting. After he made contact with the shield the backfire impacted on his left arm, opening a straight and long wound around it.

Sado jumped backwards; he didn't seem affected by the blood. Orihime thought it was weird that she was winning so easily, that Sado wasn't actually pulling some hits, or was he waiting for a trump card.

"Interesting skills." Sado said "May I ask you why are you interested in seeing king's hell?"

"So you know what I'm after." Orihime said calmly.

"It's only logical. You are not a hell prisoner, so why else would have you not come here if not to meet king's hell?" he asked while glazing at Uryuu "Surely he came here for that reason."

Orihime was about to talk, but she was astonished by seeing how the blood continued to flow and what it was doing: as the blood started slipping through Sado's arm towards his legs she noticed that they started changing.

"So you noticed."

Sado's words came from her back; she barely made it to shield herself with santen kesshun and then jump backwards.

"It's useless."

She was hit in her back before noticing. It was a clean hard hit that made her cough blood, still she made sure to hang on her breath as she leaned on the floor. She quickly kicked Sado's feet and then rolled to her right as he fell. She stood up trying to swallow the blood that struggled to come out her throat, and she held her hair pins even tighter in her hands as she covered herself in souten kisshun.

"So you can even heal yourself" Sado said as he got up "Impressive."

Orihime noticed that he was still analyzing her, not even going for real. The bleeding finally stopped, but the legs were already fully covered on the blood. It was a real bad sign, but she was not giving up.

* * *

_Wake up and smell the disaster._

Those were the first words Rangiku heard before being slapped. She was tied to a chair, her sword was just some inches away from her feet, but her legs were also tied up. Her wrist held some kind of spiritual blocker, some kind of bracelet. She could not use kidou, which was really bad considering the situation. Toshirou was in front of her, talking to someone from a cellphone. She could barely listen to anything he said, her ears were not able to detect any noise. Her mouth was dry, she was thirsty and just hoped that someone would give her some water. She didn't understand what was going on. The place was so dark that her eyes could only stare at Toshirou's white hair as if it was a flare; who was he talking to? And about what? Rangiku wanted to grasp what was that it was going on around the place, but there was no clue. Nothing made sense, why would he hurt her?

"Got it."

Those were the only words that she was able to recognize, and after that Toshirou hanged. His eyes turned around towards Rangiku and she knew she was screwed by the cold looking eyes he gave her. What did she do in order to make him loathe her so much? What has she ever done?

Toshirou left the room and Rangiku had no longer something to see, and so she was wrapped in darkness. Was that a nightmare? Hardly. You never feel what you touch while dreaming, so she couldn't be dreaming. She understood that she was both awake and alive. But why was she being punished like this?

"Poor thing"

Those words scared her only because she didn't know where they came from. She wanted to reply, but she was unable to, for some reason the words just wouldn't come out.

"Everyone needs their martyr." The voice said "It's a shame that it has to be you".

Rangiku became even more scared by those words; she couldn't recognize if it was a man or a woman, she couldn't even tell if he was in the room, next to it or outside, she could just tell that it was there.

"Don't worry, you won't be forsaken":

What he said made no sense whatsoever, but she made it to understand one thing: she was being framed for something she didn't do.


	30. Towards The Last Betrayal

**Towards The Last Betrayal**

It was all pitch black. Rangiku couldn't tell anything that went around her. The voice came and went away before she could detect where it came from. It was creepy, she was really afraid, the absence of light made her body tremble as she waited for someone to give her some water, to hear some sounds, to regain some hope. How many hours had passed since she was locked away? Time was really relative, it shouldn't have passed longer than a day, but for her it was years and years in an immense solitude, with a lonely stray voice wandering around time from time.

"Ding, ding, ding. My bicycle... my bicycle is blue and it has a little... shinny bell on it. Ding, ding, ding. My bicycle is blue and it has a little shinny bell. I left it in the rain and rusted."

She had no idea neither what those words meant, nor she cared, the only thing she wanted it was to be set free, to see the sun, to be able to swallow some water through her dry throat and to be as far away as possible from that annoying voice that came time to time.

She felt cold on her mouth; it was an abrupt feeling, an icy like sensation that came towards her lips: it was water. It could have been poisoned, but she didn't care, all she could think of was swallowing it. There was someone holding the glass, allowing her to drink the whole thing. It took around three seconds and then a second glass of water came towards her mouth.

Rangiku had never been so grateful to be able to drink water, and she wanted to thank whoever gave it to her, but the words wouldn't come out as her throat was still too dry to be able to speak out loud, still she was caressed in her hair. That feeling alone made her go back to her early years as an infant and soon it was like she was not in the dark room anymore, but about to sleep. She remembered Gin, and how badly she used to want him to take care of her; in his own way he used to do that, but he was never physical. It was like he was there, making up for it, just as he was about to free her. But that man was not Gin.

"Where is Yoruichi?"

That voice was different; it was soft, but still manly, delicate, yet firm. Who could have such a voice? She knew he was a guy.

"I don't know." The words finally found a way out. She really didn't know, Yoruichi wouldn't tell her.

"It's ok." The man said "I know you are afraid, but I ask you to wait just a little longer. Things will be fixed soon."

"Fixed how?"

The man paused before replying, and then the creepy voice talk.

"He is a little wet, I expect." The creepy voice said "He is ruling… because of collapse…"

There was a new wave of silence. For an instance she thought she was left alone, but then she felt a hand around her cheek and confirmed that the man was still there.

"Orihime will surely get you out of here… as long as Tatsuki doesn't mean to interfere."

Rangiku didn't know what he was talking about, she couldn't tell, but she was sure of something: that man could not be trusted. It was something she felt on her guts, and maybe she was already on his mercy just by drinking his water, however she could just not trust him.

"Who is here with me?" Rangiku finally asked.

There was a new pause before the man finally replied.

"There is only you, Rangiku."

For a short instance the light managed to leak through the ceiling; Rangiku was blinded for an instance before her eyes got adjusted to the light. Then, we she was able to open her eyes, the man was long gone, but she saw a mirror in front of her. Her reflection was misplaced, because the Rangiku at the other said wasn't tied up, she was merely lying down on the floor, her face looked beat up, and words came from her mouth even when she wasn't talking.

"Mommy…" the reason she couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man was because it was both: there were two voices talking at the same time, coming from her reflection "Mom? Mommy, where are you mommy? Take me out of here!"

Rangiku knew someone was trying to play with her, to frighten her, and even while realizing that intention she was still scared like hell. She watched herself talking nonsense as the light that leaked through the ceiling disappeared. She wasn't able to talk anymore, she was way too afraid to pronounce any word, but she did hope someone would take her out of there.

_Screw it! I'm getting out of here! _She couldn't wait any other second; with her left thumb she started pressing the right one until it broke. It was painful like hell, she had to bite her clothes so she wouldn't scream, but after breaking the thumb she successfully removed the bracelet that sealed her spiritual pressure, still she couldn't use it yet, otherwise she would be detected right away, so she made sure it was concealed as she tried to think how to untie herself without making any noises. Her sword was near, but sheathed. Her legs were tightly tied to the chair, so she couldn't reach it, she had to think about something else… and then she remembered she had a nail file somewhere around her cloth, would that be enough to cut the strings? It wouldn't hurt to try.

This is when things got tricky; she kept it in a pocket inside her kimono, a little above her breast, a place hard to reach in her condition, but not impossible, still she realized a mistake could be the end of it. So carefully, Rangiku looked down and tried to reach it: she had to shake a little bit, but her mouth was reaching the pocket, yet she was an inch away. Desperately she tried to reach the nail file with her tongue and she succeeded, so she tried to pull it towards her teeth. She almost let it go, but once the mouth shut she grabbed it with might. Now she needed luck; as she tried to turn herself around, she tried to take a look at her hands to let nail file fall on her hands; she almost failed, she merely caught it with her fingers and as soon as she got it she started cutting the strings. It took some time, the strings were thick, yet it was definitely cutting. Once her hands were freed she felt a rush of adrenaline covering her body, but she remained calm and silent, she couldn't afford being caught. She untied her feet and silently walked towards her sword. Now she felt safe: she was a little weak because of hunger, thirst and tired due bad posture, yet once her hands got a grip on her sword it felt like everything would be okay.

_Don't be so sure yet. _Rangiku couldn't let her guard down; she looked for the last time at the mirror: enough light leaked in order to see herself, lying down, mumbling nonsense, but suddenly she got up and smiled.

"You really think you can escape, don't you?"

Rangiku didn't reply, she looked around for the way out, still she saw no doors or windows around.

"You need an energy source."

Rangiku looked back at her reflection and noticed that it changed, and as the image of herself transformed she became filled with terror. The one looking at her was no one but hell's king Ichigo.

"You seem rather conflicted."

Rangiku didn't know what to say, words wouldn't come out, because she couldn't make any sense of what was going on.

"I'm not your enemy." Ichigo said "It would seem that Soul Society has forsaken you."

_What do I do? _She had no intention to trust him, wherever he was the real Ichigo or a trap he couldn't trust neither, so she had to think carefully about her situation. Ichigo sighed.

"You have very good reasons not to trust me, but this is the only way out."

Ichigo vanished and the mirror, suddenly, changed into a door, the only one in the room. Did the man go through that door before the light leaked? Was that how Toshirou left as well? Or there was another door around her. She didn't want to go through it, but as soon as the light seemed to vanish she decided that any place would be better but there, so she took a high risk and crossed the door.

Within a blink of an eye she could tell she wasn't in the Soul Society anymore, instead she was in a rather dark place, illuminated by a crescent moon on a very black night, and she was standing on sand.

"Oh, crap."

She couldn't help it but saying that out loud, especially when the door she just crossed closed abruptly.

_I'm stuck here! _It wasn't good at all, and it didn't seem like it would get better.

"A soul reaper here?"

It wasn't a surprise that a hollow would recognize her or that the voice would sound pissed, what was surprising was the spiritual energy, which seemed to easily outlevel Rangiku. As she turned around she saw the figure of a man she hadn't seem before, but she would not forget: she was staring at Grimmjow.

* * *

_**A/N:** W__hoever realized that there was a Fringe reference in this chapter, there's just one thing I have to tell you: You're 100% awesome ;D_


	31. Hollow Sword

_**A/N:**__ Hi everybody! It's been a while, reasons? Same old, same old (college, personal issues, the book, etc.). You all know the reasons why I don't upload chapters all that often, but hey! We're nearing the end of the story! And you'll be seeing the last hiatus as after this chapter I won't upload any other until I have the next 15 chapters ready, then I'll be uploading one every 3-4 days, so you can read the end at your pace. I need to take a break from fan fictions for a while, but before doing that I'll finish all my stories first. It's not a rushed ending as I always saw "The Heroine Complex" as a 45 chapters long story. So that's it! Thank you very much for your support, this is my n°1 hit in fan fiction (8000 hits! Plus 18 favs and 19 alerts!). So Let's get started, enjoy :D!_

* * *

**Hollow Sword**

This certainly wasn't amusing for Rangiku; first she was stuck at Hueco Mundo, and now she encountered a very possible enemy, which she could tell just by glancing at him that he was way stronger than her. Still she didn't despair, she didn't give up just yet, she was ready to fight if she had to and she started thinking of all the possible scenarios and what she could do. She saw Grimmjow stepping towards her as he smirked.

"What? Won't you draw your sword?"

"I didn't come here to fight with you."

"You are a shinigami, I'm a hollow. Is there any doubt we'll fight?"

Rangiku was about to reply, but as soon as she opened her mouth Grimmjow disappeared from her sight. It all happened in a split second. She was about to get her heart ripped out of her chest, if it wasn't because Grimmjow was suddenly stopped by someone else, a woman unlike any other Rangiku ever seen: as busty as herself, or even more, long green hair, green clothes, slim but strong body. She was beautiful and strong, who could someone like her be? And how come she could be that strong?

Grimmjow seemed pissed, but he stepped backward and prepared to draw his sword.

"What the hell?!" he asked angrily "Don't get in my way!"

"You are merely going to kill her for the sake of it." The woman said calmly "She holds no use for you, but for me she does."

Rangiku gulped. What could she possibly want from her? She couldn't make any sense of what was going on; she was happy that she was saved, but she wasn't so sure if she would remain safe in the following minutes. Her sandals sunk a little bit on the sand and then she turned around; a crack was being opened.

"Nobody steals my preys." Grimmjow muttered very pissed as he drew his sword out "A fallen espada like you won't stop me, Nelliel."

"You are such a pitiful beast." Nel said as she prepared to fight back.

"Ughwa!"

Rangiku couldn't help but scream as she fell into the crack. She didn't have the slightless idea of where it would take her, but she surely was happy that she got away from those two… or so she thought, as she saw them jumping towards the crack as well.

"OH, HELL NO!"

Hell yes, indeed, as it was where the three of them would eventually land. Things were about to get even more complicated than what Rangiku could ever imagine they would get.

* * *

It wasn't easy for either Uryuu or Ulquiorra to watch Orihime stand alone and fight the enemy; it wasn't, but neither of them did anything yet as Orihime was holding up quite well, yet it was frustrating to be waiting for the worse to happen before they could act.

Orihime could tell it, she could sense how those two were worried about her, and so she had to make progress in the fight.

The wounds Sado had were the ones he allowed himself to have, and although Orihime could heal herself as she pleased, she couldn't do it forever, so she had to get creative. She wasn't as fast as Sado, so she built her defense around her; she was inside a pyramid shield, a variation of Shiten Koushu in which three of her shin shun rikka surrounded her ground in a two feet area and Tsubaki stayed above her head, forming the pyramid and reading a backfire for whenever the enemy attacked. It was the ultimate defense shield Orihime ever created; if the enemy wanted to attack her they had no choice but to be backfire, and surely they could break the barrier, but not whithout being hurt in the progress.

Sado was smart however, and instead of directly attacking he filled his right arm with spiritual pressure, which turned into a powerful beam.

"El directo"

There should be no backfire if the attack was long distance, but Orihime was creative, so as soon as the beam clashed against the shield she surrounded herself in spiritual pressure and hoped that her idea would work; there was dust raised from the ground at the very moment the attack made contact with the shield, so much dust that nothing could be seen. As the shield started tearing apart, Orihime did something that she has never done until that very moment; she gathered the spiritual pressure in her feet and she did something very similar to a flash step. She managed to surprise Sado and she tried to hit his neck so he might fall unconscious, but it was hardened beyond her imagination and the hit only made her hand hurt and made Sado turn around and hit her with his left hand. She was hit right in the face and it was so mighty that she felt that her jaw was misplaced. The impact was so great that she was sent flying backwards; her body rolled in the ground. Sado appeared before her and she was about to kick her in the waist, but she managed to quickly make a shiten kosshun and as Sado kicked it he was immediately hurt back: a cut was opened around his waist, but the blood acted only. He didn't actually bleed, but the blood instead seemed to go up and cover his chest in straight lines. Those lines were starting to cover every single part of his body and Orihime was able to tell that that was not good at all.

Yet she prepared herself; her left arm was broken after rolling in the ground, but she could still hold her pins with it, so all she had to do was to use her imagination to make the best of it; even if she couldn't move her arm she still could control her powers with the mind, she still could fight, but it was getting ugly, as for the moment that Sado attacked her again her shield didn't hold a second time, and it couldn't even backfire.

_I have to use __Kyozetsu han before it's too late… but I need time… _Time she didn't have, so she decided to risk it. Every shin shun rikka was flying around, which meant she was unguarded by the time she started the technique. She concentrated half of her spiritual pressure on that technique and the other half in making herself fast so she could avoid Sado, but his body was already so covered in blood that he was faster than her, so she wasn't able to dodge the next hit or the next. Finally, without meaning to, the remaining of her spiritual pressure was focused on guarding her body so she could survive and the technique failed.

Uryuu and Ulquiorra were about to act, but something unexpected happened.

* * *

_Orihime?!_

As she was falling from the sky she prepared to draw her sword. It was all so fast that Sado didn't saw it coming; his head was pierced by Rangiku's blade.

It all ended at that very moment; there was blood everywhere, as the stains around Sado's body fell to the ground and a steam of blood came out of his head at the very moment Rangiku pierced it.

Orihime looked at her savior horrified. She understood why she did it, but it was the worst thing that could happen; her former friend was about to lie dead. As she could reject events she might save him, but her spiritual pressure was so low that she feared she couldn't make it.

"Grimmjow?!"

"Ulquiorra?!"

_Oh, no… hell, no._

Orihime saw how Grimmjow landed before Ulquiorra and how Nel landed next to Rangiku, who took the sword out of Sado's corpse.

Uryuu looked at this confused, shocked, but trying to grasp the situation just in case there was any need to fight.

The situation was about to get out of hand.


	32. Conqueror's Sword

_**A/N: **__It's been a while, and while I promised that when I got back I would with a finished story I must say that I'm still working on it. I decided to upload this chapter as a way to show that this story will be finished. So, why has this been taking me so long? Well, college, my books, the usual, work and also some trips with friends and family. Still, I'm determined to finish this story properly, I've read it from start to end to make sure I tie every loose end by the finale, which is a basically a 2 parts called Chained Sword and Towards The End, make of them what you will!_

_Now, into the story! I hope you enjoy! Things will start to heat up from now on!_

* * *

**Conqueror's Sword**

_Something bad just happened… so… WAKE UP!_

Orihime opened her eyes rather abruptly; her sight was blurry, but it was just a matter of seconds before she could see clearly the corpse not so far from her: it was Sado's. She was so shocked upon the revelation of his death that she didn't even felt the wounds around her body, she merely felt dizzy due the shock; she got a bit chocked up, her eyes were about to shed tears, her hands were trembling as her fingernails plunged in the ground and she didn't find the strength to speak. Rangiku was near of her, she was about to touch her until Orihime quickly hit her hand.

"Don't touch me!" She screamed angrily "You killed him."

"I thought he was going to kill you!" Rangiku replied puzzled.

"He didn't know what he was doing!" Orihime argued "He didn't remember anything! Now he is… gone…"

_Gone… _the words hurt her so much that she couldn't even get up; she saw everyone around her, the only ones not concerned- but rather confused- were Grimmjow and Nel, while Uryuu and Ulquiorra seemed to struggle with the right approach. But there was no right approach, there was no way to avoid mourning him, and all the awry turns the way until now had took only made her feel worse.

"What's the big deal?" Grimmjow asked, trying to make sense of things "Who was that to you anyway?"

"He was my friend!" Orihime replied.

"So?" he asked "Get other friends!"

That comment just got her to the point where her rage took over her usual good nature. It took but seconds for her to get up and outright slap him. Just after she did that she could see how pissed he was, but didn't care a bit, if he wanted to fight she would. And it seemed that would come to happen, as Grimmjow was unsheathing his sword, yet only the hilt remained visible as Ulquiorra quickly grabbed his hand and stopped him as Uryuu forced Orihime to step back.

"As you see, he lacks of social skills, you shouldn't let him get to you." Nel suggested "And you shouldn't let this take the best of you."

"What do you know?!"

"Regardless of what you think of me, I do know one or two things about loss." Said Nel calmly "And one thing is sure: he is not coming back. There will be a time to grieve, but I believe it's not now. Didn't you come here after Ichigo?"

"Ichigo?!" The name ringed a bell on Grimmjow and he was about to struggle with Ulquiorra until he heard that name.

"The blood shed here is already shed. Don't let that distract you from your objective."

"Why do you care?" Orihime asked.

"Because I ended up believing you." Nel replied "Ever since we last encountered the name of Ichigo has echoed in my mind and I want to meet him, and I believe you know how to get to him."

Orihime had to recognized that Nel was smarter and sharper than she thought; and she was right, no matter how much she grieved Sado there it wouldn't make a difference, yet she wanted to cry so much, she wanted to let all out. Rangiku recognized this and she just had to make one gesture to make everybody understand that she needed a minute with Orihime.

Grimmjow was about to protest, but both Ulquiorra and Nel got to shut him up for a bit, but holding him wasn't easy for either of them. Meanwhile Uryuu just kept his distance, and as he saw Sado's body he just couldn't avoid but feel a little bit empty, he didn't know why, he thought that he might have known him in the alternate timeline, but the truth was that seeing him lying there, dead, also made him feel… kinda bleak.

"Orihime, I know you are angry at me right now."

"What was your first clue?!" Orihime was surprised at how pissed she was, enough to talk like that.

"I just wanted to protect you."

"I got enough of that crap!" she yelled "Everybody sees me as the useless girl that needs to be protected! Guess what? I've been training! I can take care of myself!"

"We all need help at times, and you needed it back there!" Rangiku argued "If I haven't done it, you might be the one who bite the dust in the ground right now."

"Maybe that'd be better" she said bitterly.

Rangiku sighed and then she frowned as she started glaring at her. It was odd seeing Rangiku actually mad, as she realized that it must also have been weird seeing her so mad.

"What that green haired girl says is right; this is not the time for mourn." she said as she started losing patience "You are not the only one who has experienced loss, I also lost someone important, but I'm not whining like you. So now this is what's going to happen: we're all going to where Ichigo is and we fix this mess. After all, you are the one who put us in this position in the first place."

And those last words were the ones that hurt the most, because Rangiku was absolutely right: they both knew who had the blame of all that was happening, and she knew that Rangiku wouldn't have killed Sado if she remembered him, but it was so much easier to blame her, she found it so much comforting than dealing with the fact that her choice was what ultimately killed him. And she didn't know if she was ready to accept it; so she calmed down, she tried to come back to her usual kind self, but she did hold on her anger at Rangiku, just because it made it easier.

"Ok." She said breathing as some tears fell through her eyes "I won't whine about it, we will continue on… like nothing ever happened."

She tried to smile, but as she noticed that all she could get was a poor smirk she decided to just leave the serious face around; she wasn't in the mood to be sweet or nice, she was so angry, so sad, so filled with many emotions she could barely even turn around and keep walking without sobbing; she didn't cry, but the tears wouldn't leave as she walked towards the exit of the coliseum.

Rangiku, Uryuu, Nel, Ulquiorra and Grimmjow quickly walked until they catch up with her; the presence of the last one bothered everyone.

"Why are you following us?" Nel asked upset.

"I want to meet this 'Ichigo', I feel like I heard that name before" Said Grimmjow.

"Great" Said Nel sighing "nothing like good company."

* * *

"Where are we now, Kon?"

"Well, this is rather near Hell King's chamber."

Tatsuki was a bit nervous in the zone they were in; she was chilling, the ice she was stepping was kind of freezing her feet just like she walked barefoot and so the cold spread rather quickly around her body. Everything in that zone was made of pure ice; the environment became more and more hostile to Tatsuki's eyes as she walked through. She wasn't completely recovered from her previous battle, she was still tired and there was nowhere to rest. If what Kon said was true and the Ichigo's chamber was near then she was in big trouble as she would face him with half of her power when she couldn't even defeat her previous enemy at full power, one that she was sure was weaker than Ichigo.

But she still walked forward, as she knew she couldn't give up, not after getting so far along with Rukia and Orihime. She knew they would rendezvous soon enough, she had faith on it. Still, the path ahead wasn't easy and soon she felt her vision was starting to become blurry as one of her arms stopped working.

"Tatsuki?" Kon asked worried.

"I'm fine." She muttered, almost inaudibly "This won't get the best of me…"

But she wasn't so sure, it was like each steep was draining her stamina little by little until it left only an empty shell. Soon half of her powers was being generous, she barely had a quarter as she started to panic as no exit seemed to lie ahead. And finally, she fell on the ice.

"Tatsuki!" Kon yelled as he tried to lift her and failed. Soon he was hitting her face just so she wouldn't fall sleep "If you don't get up you'll die, you hear me!"

But Kon words were messy for Tatsuki and she couldn't make sense of them at all, they were just some kind of buzz. Why did she came here after all? She was starting to forget as her eyes started closing and she welcomed the claws of dead.

That until someone actually lifted her; she was still about to lose conscious and so she couldn't see who helped her, she could only tell that it was a man, one on a soul reaper outfit, ally or enemy? If enemy she would probably be dead, so she stopped struggling and just fell asleep.

* * *

Kon was shocked by the man who just helped Tatsuki; he stood on the ice, staring at the man with wide eyes.

"Isshin the conqueror…" he muttered.

It was in fact him; a black haired man with a quite big body, wearing soul reaper outfit and a stripped captain cape. Why him of all men? Kon gulped as he saw how he was taking Tatsuki away and he wondered for a moment what to do. He knew it might not end well for him, but he decided to follow him anyway.


End file.
